


Orenda

by felix_8felicis



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Blood and Injury, Elves, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Give Minho a hug, Hurt/Comfort, Hybrids, Interactive au, Minor Character Death, Nobility, Peasants, Secrets, Sirens, Strangers to friends to family, There's pictures!, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, castle - Freeform, mention of prostitution, victorian london
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:15:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 40,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28800441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felix_8felicis/pseuds/felix_8felicis
Summary: [𝗘𝗫𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘]Orenda; grasp your lifetime chance to start a new life in a new land and live like a king!Only condition?'Describe Yourself in 3 Secrets'or,Lee Minho has lost both his parents in tragic circumstances. Finding no where else to go, in a world destroyed by war, he decides to attend Orenda College in the hope of a new chance in life.
Relationships: Lee Minho | Lee Know & Everyone, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 37





	1. Prologue

_Orenda :_

_1\. (n.) a mystical force present in all people that enpowers them to affect the world, or to affect change in their own lives_

_2\. Institution which location is unknown. It is said to be the gate to the free continent. One must graduate from it to access said land._

25th March 1870,

Today marks the 8th consecutive year of World War III. Vampires, Werewolves, Faery, Elves, underwater beings, witches, wizards and the many more creatures living on this earth, each fighting for the throne as if it is rightfully theirs. Species all around the world are living in constant fear of being woken up in the middle of the night by a bomb exploding on the roof above their heads. Of not getting to see another day. Of loosing the people they care about.

Orenda is a project which goal is to live in harmony and peace and thus despite one’s race and financial statue. In the New Continent equally led by different species, everyone will be given the chance to start anew with an assured welcoming home and a meal in their plate. _Freely_.

To be given this immense life changing opportunity, two conditions applies : be aged between 18 and 33 years old, and graduate from Orenda College.

Orenda College is the main branch of the project. It is an institution selecting every year candidates across the globe to study, for a year long, fondamentale subjects essential for the new life they each seek for.

To insure everyone’s safety and to prepare your arrival to the new continent, every student much protect three of their secrets;

    1. Their Specie 
    2. Their Financial statue 
    3. Any personal information of great importance 



If all of your secrets get discovered, you will be deemed unready to live in the free country and will therefore be immediately expelled.

If you succeed on discovering one of the top highest amounts of secrets, you will be granted access to the land with everything ready under your name to start living a new life.

Are you ready for the ride?

_Describe yourself in 3 secrets._

_   
_

\- 

\- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah hmmm hai ._. 
> 
> This is something new I'm trying, an interactive au in ao3! The au is originally posted in twitter, you can either check it out there at @orenda_au or here! The results of the votes will be cumulated form here and twitter! 
> 
> I have no expectations that this will get any attention lmao but yeah hi hehe


	2. Clues

CLUE N• 1 

“To them, I want to be everything they didn’t have the privilege to; a mother, a father, a best friend, safety and the certitude that they’ll wake up the next morning and find me by their sides”  [#Orenda_Clues](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)

CLUE N• 2 

“I wants to find him. I’ll flip the world over just to find him. Please, be alive so I can be angry at you for abandoning me all those years”  [#Orenda_Clues](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)

CLUE N•3 

“I’M SORRY OK? For lying. For living well. For trying to forget. For being greedy of things I do not deserve. For not looking for you. For pretending to be what I’m not. Above all, I’m sorry for not regretting any of those decisions”  [#Orenda_Clues](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)

CLUE N•4 

“I don’t know I’m just- terrified. What if I go underwater and suddenly can’t breath? What if I get eaten by a shark or something? I just- I want to be able to go there without being scared of drowning”  [#Orenda_Clues](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)

CLUE N•5

“I am a monster. I know that. I know it better than anyone else, so why do I still crave for affection and freedom? Why do I want to live so desperately?”  [#Orenda_Clues](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)

CLUE N•6 

“I’LL TAKE THE BLAME OKEY? I’LL SAY THAT I KILLED HER! If anyone hears about this, they will DESTROY him. Do you really think he’ll be able to handle it? LOOK AT HIS STATE! LOOK AT HIM!”  [#Orenda_Clues ](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)

CLUE N• 7 

“His blood is tattooed on my hands. I killed him. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry” [#Orenda_Clues](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)

CLUE N•8 

“I’m just a bastard who stole someone else’s life. I don’t have any right to judge you. Yes, that includes you killing someone. We’re in a war, everyone’s a murderer one way or another”  [#Orenda_Clues](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues?src=hashtag_click)


	3. “Those days are gone, now they are memories on the wall. I hear the sounds from the places where I was born"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment your choices of the polls bellow

August 31th, 1870,

 _London_ .

 _11:59am_

The wind is blowing against the walls, filtrating through the cracks under the window, making the glass wince and whine in displeasure. The room is freezing despite the fire crackling in the fireplace, a vain attempt to bring in some warmth and illuminate the dark room, at least one last time. Minho knows the rest of the castle is far colder, as if snow is falling from the high ceiling, and he thinks he should be grateful. His ink is darkening the old parchment he found in the darkest corner of his drawer, under a book of Shakespeare and above a half empty bottle of cologne. There’s a darkened red stain on the bottom right corner, but that’ll have to do for tonight.

He reads what he had written for what must be the tenth time now, as if forcing his brain to decipher the letters in front of his eyes yet again will make what he is doing a bit more believable. It doesn’t. Not really.

The wind blows again and Minho shivers. He carefully puts back his feather pen in its place and forces himself to stand up. His back cracks when he stretches his limbs, echoing against the silence. With careful steps, he approaches the fire and bends down.

The long strings of flames are dancing between each other, offering their viewer one last performance. It pulls him back to the first day he put a foot inside these walls. A ball had been thrown by his parents to celebrate his arrival, and Minho had enjoyed every second of it. Though those days are now long gone, had faded from the present to settle in the memories that is the past.

A knock resonates behind the door.

“You may come in” he mutters quietly.

The butler enters the room, back straight and face blank like Minho always remembered it to be.

“They are here my lord.”

With a nod as simple response, the man disappears. His steps resonates down the hall for a long moment after his departure.

Once the silence has taken back its rightful reign, the lord walks back to his desk to press his palms against the wood. It starts raining, the tickling sound informs him when it comes disrupting the quietness. He stares at the droplets coming to crash against the merciless glass, eyes unseeing. The piece of parchment bellow him is glaring, Number 3 as empty as he had left it.

He picks his feather, and lowers his hand to write.

NAME : Lee Minho 

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN THREE SECRETS 

_1\. I am a ____

_2\. I am a lord, only inheritor of the Lee Family_

_3._

[CHOICE] 

_Which secret should Minho write ?_

🌌 vs  🤥

With trembling hands, Minho writes down besides the last number. He recoils back, and stares at it for a too long second. After a heavy sigh, he folds the parchment and slides it inside a letter that he carefully seals.

He throws one last look at his room. The storm is picking up behind the closed doors of his balcony. With longing regrets scattering like ashes at every one of his steps and intakes of air, he closes the door behind him.

Just as he had known, the hall is freezing. His footsteps resonates in the deathlike silence. It’s dark, but Minho doesn’t have any trouble walking in the darkness. At the bottom of the gigantic golden stairs centring the main hall, is his butler, waiting for him with his arms folded behind his back.

“Send this to Orenda.” Minho asks after he walked down the stairs, standing beside the tall man. He hands the letter over.

“Yes my Lord.”

A stolen glance thrown around the main hall, the family’s jet black piano catches the younger’s eyes. He stares at it for a period of time he can’t tell, but it must have been long and obvious enough because his butler follows his gaze.

“May I ask for one last performance young master?”

For the first time in his life, the younger recognizes an emotion between the wrinkles of his face. Melancholy. Nostalgia. Longing for something that is no more.

Minho hesitates. He doesn’t know if he’s ready to do that so soon after what had happened. The last time he had played, it had been for people that are no more. He had been another Lee Minho; a happier one, with the naive belief that his world would not fall apart.

Despite it all, he wants to give this one last gift to this man who had been more of a father than anyone else in his life.

His feet guides him toward the instrument, and as if his brain had a mind of its own, he sits down in front of the piano. His fingers runs across the keys gently without pressing any, like a feather swept across them. He is about to start playing when something catches his eyes. There’s a drop of red on the last key towards the right. Minho stares at it for a long second before rapidly adverting his eyes, as if he had stared at a sinful thing. His throat itches.

Without thinking much about what to play, his fingers starts dancing, as if they know exactly what is needed in a situation like this. As if they had been waiting for this moment. The notes are bleeding, crying in loneliness and longing for _something_. For _someone_. The melody is capturing the quietness, going in slowly before picking up in intensity. Minho only now realizes why he unconsciously choose this piece. Recognizes the foreign feeling burning in his chest. He had wished, no, rather _needed_ to express the emotions in his butler’s face, in the now ghost filled castle, in the abrupt turn of events that had led him to this exact moment. The last keys fill the air for a couple of seconds more, and when the death-like emptiness comes hunting back the room and his heart, he stands back up.

“Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata” The old man says.

Minho simply nods. Without any uttered word, he wears his black coat and walks toward the entrance. He’s about to get out of the doors that had been opened for him when he suddenly stops. Biting his lower lip, eyes fixed on the floor fighting for a decision, he finally lifts his head and makes eye contact with his butler. “Thank you for serving our family so loyally all these years.”

Such stupid and empty words for everything this man had done for him and his parents. Yet, there’s so less words that could express how Minho truly feels.

His butler bows down in a perfect ninety degree reverence, his right hand pressed above his heart. “It was an honour my Lord.”

Minho stiffly nods. With all the courage he can muster, he turns his back to his home of so many years. Of the place that had held so many tears, so many flash of anger and so many laughters. The stones that had watched him grow and had heard him complain against his teachers to everyone who had ears to hear. Of the floor that had felt him run across the hallways, had cushioned his multiple falls whatever he had tripped or been thrown on it while practicing swords and physical fights. The tables that had watched him eat and the beds that had held him close when he slept or jumped on them. Of the gardens that had seen so much of Lee Minho. His eyes stings but with a simple flutter of eyelashes and the traitorous tears are gone like a desert mirage.

When the carriage takes him away, he watches the castle disappear in the darkness as more and more distance is put between them. He watches everything he has ever known, his entire life, fade unto what cannot be seen anymore. If he stares unto the nothingness that is now the view, he can successfully convince himself that it had all been part of an illusion after all.

The black horses take him down the road. The rain is thundering on the wood above his head, and it sends a shiver of fear along his fingers who trembles.

With a heavy sigh, he rests his head on the wood behind him and closes his eyes.

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : Clothing Shop, London** _. 

Credit:[Filipe Ferreira, ](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oO0DEL)

The trip to wherever this driver is taking him is short. Barely twenty minutes has passed when the vehicle stops. The long strides of rain that had been falling from the sky are now long gone, leaving behind them a ground that ressembles a tiny sized pool. Minho steps out of the carriage and glances around him. Clouds are miserably attempting to hide the night view, fog poisoning the streets. Few people are still outside, an ugly frown on every expression like those fancy dolls that all held the same frozen smile.

“Shop’s right in front of you across the streets." his driver grunts in a way that tells Minho that he would like to be anywhere else rather than here. Minho's face crouches in displeasure at the drop of formalities. He forces his expression to go blank after reminding himself that he should get used to it if he wants his financial statue to be kept a secret. "I’ll be waiting here."

Without showing any sign that he had heard him, the young lord walks away. The shop's windows are large and illuminated by a honey light. There are metallic birds under the sign that says ‘THE WHITE LION’, and when he pulls the heavy door open, they sing lonelily; none of the few people around paying attention to hear the melody they sing. Just as he was about to enter, Minho is sent stumbling several steps back.

A body had forcefully collided with his.

"Oh fu- I’m so sorry!"

Minho lifts his eyes to glare at the young man in front of him. His hands are awkwardly reaching toward him, as if he had just stopped himself from trying to steady the stranger he had walked unto. "I didn't see you there I'm so sorry." He repeats his apology, his voice lowering down to take a calmer and more collected tone.

"It's fine.” Minho mumbles, trying to get this conversation over with before he can get caught under yet another storm. Oh how absolutely terrified he is of them. The weather doesn’t look like it has settled down for the night, the wind whistling as it races through the buildings. His nanny, when he was no taller than three apples, used to tell him that the whistling wind is made by a giant walking through the city, trying to make himself unnoticed so people would not scream in fear and run away from him. It always made Minho laugh through his tears, still hidden under his bed. Too terrified to look the storm in the eyes and verify for himself if the giant indeed ever existed, he had believed in the whistling giant that just wanted to be loved for a couple of years before age and time stole that reality from him and replaced it with a crueler one.

The stranger says something but Minho’s ears doesn’t pick up on the spoken words. Despite the darkness, he can easily analyse the boy's features. He has freckles coating his cheeks like fairy dust. Rather than a coat, he is enveloped in a teal cap reaching his ankles. Orenda's colors, he recognizes. Realization suddenly falls on his head; this is where he's going to get his uniform. It makes sense if he thinks about it; if everyone went to the institution with their personal clothes, it won't take much to differentiate the Lord from the peasant. First secret would be blown for everyone to see as easily as that.

Without a glance to the freckled man, Minho walks past him and enters the shop.

Inside, a women is already waiting for him. Standing behind the messy front desk, she offers him a wide smile that unsettles him and tenses his muscles. There's something strange in her eyes. In the way they tinkle almost evilly. "Nice to meet you my Lord, or should I just say Minho? You can't be called that anymore now can you?" she giggles, her purple gown moving with every of her movements. "First I have to ask, do you need a bath? We have one in the back room."

Minho frowns his eyebrows before he shakes his head.

"I'm asking because we are instructed to make every student look at their utmost best. If you've seen the state the lower class candidates are brought to us, you would understand." she says in disgust, walking toward a pile of clothes, her heels making a metallic sound at every one of her steps. "Let see what fits you." she turns around with that same odd smile, both of her arms filled with clothing.

After what feels like too many measurements and fittings, Minho finally gets his uniform. The whole fit is as black as a starless night, from the vest to the pants to the shirt underneath. The logo of the institution is printed in his left side in a vibrant teal, right above his heart. He's given a teal cape matching the colour of Orenda’s logo, and long black leathered boots. "The rest of the uniforms will be sent directly to Orenda." she says as she writes something down on her notes.

"There are more?" Minho asks with a raised eyebrow.

Without looking up, the shop’s owner responds in a tone that had heard the same question too many times. "Of course my dear. Many, many more. What you are wearing is the autumn uniform. You will be sent the winter, spring and summer ones. For winter, you will also be provided with a coat, a scarf, gloves and boots. For spring and summer new pair of shoes. There also are the casual clothes for when you wish to go shopping and the formal ones for parties and balls. Not to forget sports and swimming clothes. Pyjamas are already within the castle along with other trivial but more essential clothings such as underwear, socks and towels." she raises her head from her parchments, staring at Minho with a look that freezes his heartbeats. "Not to forget funeral attires. They always finds themselves great use." The woman smirks and send him a wink.

Minho keeps his face blank, the only sign of the fear and confusion thrashing inside his limbs are the crescent shaped marks in his palms carefully hidden behind his back. He wouldn't like to admit it, but as soon as she informs him that they are done, he has to stop himself from running out of this shop.

Just as he had expected it, the storm had showed the tip of its tail again. Thankfully, his carriage is still waiting outside, and he doesn’t waste another second before going inside the vehicle.

“How did it go?” His driver asks, setting right where Minho had been.

“Good” he responds, taking place opposite him.

The man takes a long stride of smoke. He exhales it almost directly on Minho’s face, but the younger doesn’t react.

“Look there’s two ways we can go from here” He sighs and takes out a flask containing a translucent liquid. “You can either drink this without making a fuss and make life easier for the both of us. Or-“ he leans forward and lowers his voice. “Or I shove it down your throat.”

Minho snickers, half of his lips pulling up unto a smile. He wants to laugh at the audacity of this man to threaten someone like himself. “Can I at least ask what it is for?”

The man examines his face and body language before answering. “Orenda’s location is top secret. And it needs to stay that way. We put you to sleep like sleeping beauty. You will wake up in the train on your way to the castle” he raises his hands as if showing something Minho can’t see. “As easy as that. We do all the exhausting job for you and all is asked from you is to do absolutely nothing and close your eyes. Like aways.”

Not really finding it in himself to upset him any longer, Minho takes the bottle from him and swallows the liquid with one shot.

The last thing he hears before his vision goes dark is the humourless laugh of the man.

** [CHOICE]  **

#  🐿️ vs 🦊


	4. “Tiresome times that drove me crazy I’m running so I can forget As the bell of a new start rings I got on,  Hold my hand and take me to the penthouse”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Results of the previous polls :
> 
> \- Which secret should Minho write ?  
> 🌌 78%  
> 🤥 22% 
> 
> \- ?  
> 🐿️63%  
> 🦊37%

_September 1st, 1870,_

_Location Unknown,_

_11:59am_

The world around Minho starts forming again in a blur of dizzy head and sour muscles. He grunts, trying to move his arms and legs to locate himself in the open space. There’s concrete floor bellow his feet, and he is sitting down on something. With frowned eyebrows, and more courage that it should have been necessary, he forces his eyes open.

At first, he can only see distorted shapes of dark red. He tries taking a breathe in, but his chest sends him a stinging pain and nausea rages in his stomach. Minho stands up on weak legs, and as if his brain is angry at him for doing such thing, it makes the world spin around itself. He presses his hand against a wall to his right, or whatever that is, stabilizing him enough for his vision to slowly become clearer.

“If you’re planning on throwing up, the bathroom is down the hallway.”

The strange unfamiliar voice makes Minho violently startle, sending him stumbling back on his seat. He stares dumbfounded at the guy in front of him. He is sitting cross legged, a candy bag preciously cuddled in his hands as he takes a sugary pink one out of the plastic bag and bite the tip. He holds unto it like if it is the most delicate thing on earth.

“And don’t think on opening the window and throwing up outside. That’s a very bad idea. Last time I did it, vomit landed all over Changbin hyung’s face.” A laugh escapes his lips, his face illuminating the dark lighted place.

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : Orenda’s Train** _

Minho looks around him, utterly lost and confused. There’s a window at his right showcasing the speeding dark view, and a door to his left. They are in a train, and he’s in a compartment. The seats are red and there’s a table pressed against the window separating him and the stranger. A lamp is weakly chasing the shadows around them.

“I was also sick the first time you know. That translucent liquid do wonders. I actually had slept more than you. You’re up pretty early for your first time.”

Rubbing his face, Minho heavily sighs. A headache is forming inside his skull and this guy wouldn’t shut up. He doesn't know if he wants to strangle or hug him. He hates to admit it, but his nonchalance is somehow relieving and calming.

“How- how long was I out?” For the first time, Minho fixes his eyes to his. He must be somewhere near his age, probably a bit younger or older. He has black hair falling over his round eyes. His cheeks are puffed as he stores his candies inside. There’s a glint of innocence sparkling in his eyes as he blinks at Minho. 

“Around 24 or 25 hours.”

He probably notices the way the other stares at him because he chuckles. “I don’t have any valid explanation to give you. That’s just how it works.” He shrugs and stands up, sending the sugar that had fallen on his laps to go flying to the carpet. "Anyway, now that you're up. Goodbye." He’s about to leave the compartment when Minho stops him, taken aback by the sudden turns of event.

“W-wait, where are you going?” He asks, internally cursing himself for sounding so weak. Though he can’t really help it, all his defence come crushing down when he is scared and cornered like a cat.

The stranger sends him a glance above his shoulder, a smirk on his lips. “I’m going to find my friends. I only stayed because I didn’t want you to wake up alone. Usually, the other compartments are crowded. Felt bad you would be left on your own while you were still out.”

Minho nods. That’s pretty nice of him. Trying to gain back some control in the conversation, he asks; “What’s your name?”

The boy’s smirk widens and he turns around to bow comically. “Han Jisung to your service.” He stands up, his grin fully turning unto a genuine smile. Minho frowns, his chest feeling like it had a small beast inside it, jumping around in wonder. He never met anyone who looks so genuinely excited and thrilled. A stranger at that. The nobility is full of people with fake smiles and held back laughters. Minho himself doesn't know how to express so much emotions in a single expression.

“In the hope to meet you again Lee Minho,”

And with that, he disappears

.

It’s well past 2am when the train finally comes to a halt. The engine lets escape a strident sound, a final sigh of exhaustion. Doors of every compartments opens one by one, in a similar whine of wood. 

When Minho opens his, there’s already a crowd forming in the tight hallway. It had been pretty boring, sitting alone and staring outside the window after Han Jisung had left. He could hear excited chatters from the other compartments, but he hadn't found it in himself to explore or meet new people just yet. It had been a good opportunity to let himself think and assimilate his new surroundings. Two hours later, the train had arrived to its destination. 

Given the fact that no one has any personal belonging, it doesn’t take long to get out unto the fresh night.

The moon is high in the star-full sky. The wind is blowing the forest’s scents on their faces, welcoming and urging them to walk forward unto her grace. Right behind them, is a town illuminated by a few lights. While Minho is looking at everything around him in barely contained curiosity, there’s students that already started walking unto the forest. He is about to follow after them when a loud voice interrupts his thoughts.

“If this is your first time follow after me!” A women with bright red hair shouts, her hand raised high. “The others you may lead the way.” She bends in a mocked reverence, a smirk on her lips.

The crowd divides in two: a small group confidently engulfing themselves between the long dark trees, and the other group, much bigger, walking behind the women with a hesitant, sometimes even frightened, look on their faces. Roughly speaking, there must be around 1000 to 1500 students. The forest is dark, the trees thick and tall. It's hard to walk without tripping and stumbling, the moon and stars as only source of light.

“Is this your first time here?” Someone toward his right asks after half an hour of walk. Minho raises an eyebrow at him, isn’t it obvious enough? “Yeah” he mumbles.

“My name is Seungmin by the way.” He says with a grating nod.“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Minho snickers. He’ll bet everything he have that this Seungmin is a nobleman. There’s no other way that middle class or lower class use such polite vocabulary and stand as straight as this one is. Maybe it won’t be that hard to collect secrets after all.

“Minho” he simply responds before staring ahead of him. It’s been an exhausting day even if he technically had been out for a whole day. Engaging a conversation, with a fellow noble at that, is the last thing he wants to do at 2am in the middle of god knows where.

They keep walking in the dark for at least an hour before a student raises his voice.

“Professor!There’s dinner waiting for usright?”

It’s a man with purple hair and dark attires, his cape not to be seen while it should have been on his shoulders like the rest of them. He has a smirk on his lips, posture relaxed and confidence washing off his whole body in powerful waves. It’s enough to tell Minho that it isn’t his first time here. He had been walking ahead of the crowd but has stopped to wait for the woman with red hair to catch up on him.

“The sandwich in the train wasn’t exactly the best thing I had here.”

Minho hadn't even known that they could have food.

“You know the rules Chris. No food after 8pm.”

The woman says to which the said Chris playfully whines at. There are two other guys standing closely by his side. It’s too crowded for Minho to really see their faces but one of them is Han Jisung. They must be the friends he had talked about. The three stay by each other’s sides the whole trip. Somehow, it doesn't come as a surprise that he is part of the popular kids. 

“Who are they?” Minho asks Seungmin who’s still walking with him.

The latter follows his gaze. “Those are people you need to stay away from. Seriously, if you want to stay in Orenda for more than a month, don’t try to piss off 3racha.”

Minho raises an eyebrow. Well, that was a bit late, he had already met with one of them and his curiosity was aflame.

He is about to ask more when something cuts him short.

There's a light emanating in the dark.

_** UNLOCKED LOCATION : Enchanted Forest  ** _

_** Credit : eBaum’s World ** _

_** ** _

The forest gets clearer, the huge trees replaced by thinner ones whose branches are small enough to leave place for the stars pearling the night sky like diamonds. Vegetation grows in intensity and suddenly, it’s glowing. Yellow lights are floating in the air, enveloping the leaves and grass as if they were protecting them. When Minho and the students stop walking to admire the view, the lights starts dancing around them excitedly. He had been to forests before, but never in his life had he seen a more breathtaking view.

“With your reaction, I’m guessing you’re not a nature being.”

Minho snaps his head toward Seungmin. For a moment, he completely forgot that they had been having a conversation. “You should hide your reactions better.” Seungmin says without staring at him, hands in the pockets of his pants.

“And I’m guessing with your lack of reaction that you’re probably one.”

Seungmin shrugs with a smirk. “I never said it’s my first year.”

And with that, he walks away.

Minho heavily sighs. He hates this kid already."Or maybe I'm pretending! I'm a very good actor!” He shouts after him in the middle of the excited chatters of the other students.

Though he can’t say that Seungmin is wrong; this is the perfect occasion to try find out students’ specie depending on their reactions. He hesitates between analyzing Seungmin further or the other students.

_[CHOICE]_

_Who should Minho analyze?_

Seungmin vs The crowd of students 

RESULTS : 72,7% vs 27,3%

Seungmin is walking ahead, hands hidden in his pockets. He looks stunningly comfortable, muscles relaxed and shoulders hunched down.The lights are turning around him, going as far as jumping on his head and slithering in his hair like glitters.

He had said that he’s not surprised because it isn’t his first time coming to Orenda, yet Minho starts questioning the honesty of his answer, if that really was the only reason. The way the spirits lights are reacting to his presence just looks odd.

It takes another hour before the castle comes unto view. His size is three times bigger than the one Minho grew up in.

_** UNLOCKED LOCATION : Orenda College (By night)  ** _

[ _** Credit ** _ ](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/9tsb10/hohenzollern_castle_germany/?st=JO15F3E9&sh=c18fa228)

_** ** _

There are lights all around the walls, allowing everyone to easily find their way throughout the castle grounds. They pass huge metallic doors, welcoming them in a garden that is too dark to properly admire. The stairs leading to the main entrance are long and large. The main hall is gigantic, two pair of silver staircase on either sides. The ceiling is high, and instead of stone, it is made of glass that lets through the view of the moon sending its shadow at their feet. It is nothing like Minho has ever seen, and that despite already visiting a handful of castles and palaces in his life.

“You can gap in shock at the beauty of the place later, c’mon keep walking!” The red haired professor shouts, walking straight toward a room located between the staircases and right in front of the main entrance. It’s a cafeteria, Minho realizes when he is close enough. A rectangular room with two long tables laying vertically in front of them. He has to squints his eyes to see the opposite wall where another table is placed horizontally. Tachers and whoever is responsible of this place are already sitting in it.

The students scatters around the room, each taking place and discussing with an enthusiastic low voice. Minho searches for three people in particular, and when his eyes lands on Chris, Han Jisung and their third friend taking place on the right side table, he goes and sits in it. The thing is, he hates when people tell him what to do and what not too. Because Seungmin warned him about them, he can’t help but to do exactly the opposite. How strong can those three really be?

“Did everyone take place? If so, I need your attention over here.”

A woman is standing behind a pedestal in front of the teachers' table. She is taller and slimmer than the one that brought him here. Her dark green hair are pined behind her head, a smirk and a glint illuminating her gaze. She is dressed in a gray and teal gown that kisses her frame. “Thank you professor Rose for safely guiding our students here. It is a pleasure to have all of you with us tonight. To our new students, welcome to Orenda. To our old ones, welcome back and I hope you have a better chance this year.” Her voice is mocking as she embrasses the crowd with her eyes.

“My name is Mrs. Miller, headmistress of Orenda. To remind or inform, allow me to say a few words on how things work here.”

She raises a finger. “Most important rule : no whatsoever type of violence, and that includes verbal violence, will be tolerated within these walls. If I come to hear that any of you bullied a student after his financial statue or race came to light, you can pack your bags the exact instant.” Mrs. Miller lowers her hand, a threatening glare piercing right through Minho. A second later, a smile finds its way back to her lips, as if nothing happened. “Now, for the secrets system.” Her voice lowers down, making the students inch forward in their seats in anticipation. “All month long, you will be allowed to send by owl or raven to the administration wing the secrets you think you discovered.”

She stays silent for a minute, letting her words sink in. “The last day of every month, no secrets will be accepted, classes canceled and curfew, usually at eleven, will be advanced to 8pm. The next day, all the secrets that had been discovered will be displayed in the main hall. Therefore, if your roommate finds out that you are a low class, the first of the next month, your name, picture and full details about your financial statue will be hung for the whole school to see.”

Chatters lifts around the room but the headmistress rapidly quietens them down.

“The number of letters you send us is unlimited as long as you don’t contradict yourself within the same month. For exemple, you cannot send in a letter saying that Student A is a vampire and the next morning, another one saying that they’re a Faery. If something like that ever occurs, both declarations will be rejected even if one of them happens to be true.” She gestures with her hand the air around her. “Every students points will be updated the first of every month along with the discovered secrets. The number of points assigned will differ from the secret's difficulty and student you got it from. If you have any further questions, you may contact any Professor.”

She claps her hands together, looking unhealthily excited to get to the next part. "About your first secret; your race." Tension visibly poisons the air in the room. "In every room, are two safes besides each bed. In it, you will find items regarding your race. For vampires, you'll find a blood bag. Sirens; a potion to prevent your skin from dehydrating and a key to an indoor poolin the lowest level of the castle. Werewolves; potion for the full moon. Elves and Witches; potion to help control the excess of magic that might occur after not using any kind of powers for too long. Faeries; lotion for your wings for when it gets stuffy due to not flying nor summoning them. Banshees; potion to subside any link to what's beyond the veil, the other side." 

That much Minho had expected. There are spices that can't live without fulfilling their needs.

"The quantity is limited of course, and will be restored every two week. Don't worry about anyone seeing the staff bringing in the items to the safes; They will simply magically appear." She giggles, as if she really finds herself funny. "This is either a benediction or a curse. Depends if you can hide a secret." Mrs. Miller winks and Minho turns his face away, disgusted. He hates her already.

"Tomorrow morning, you will be asked to present yourself to the administration wing to register for the classes you wish to take." Her finger points the opposite wall, making all present turn their head. Besides the doors, is now a long table with hundreds of sheets classified in piles. “I know everyone is tired, you had a long day I’m sure, so let’s get started with your roommates.”

Minho bits the inside of his cheek. Here’s the part he feared the most. He had never shared a room before, and the prospect of doing it now after all those years makes him anxious.

“Parchments are classified in alphabetical order. Two students by room. When your year of birth will be called, you will advance toward the table and look for your name. If there’s already someone who wrote their name besides yours, you have no choice but to be with that person. If there’s more than a name, you can pick only one. If no one wrote their names beside yours, you write your name beside a student you wish to room with. When you are done, you sit and wait.” Mrs. Millers exclaims. “Firstly, I ask our youngest, the 18 years old, toadvance to the table.”

Minho turns the voices off, eyes staring unseeing the wood in front of him. It gets louder as students chats between themselves, the headmistress raising her voice from time to time to call their ages. He stands up when his is called. “22 years old you might stand.”

With heavy feet, he advances to the table with a hundred of other students. He can’t help but whine, exhaustion slithering deep unto his bones. He doesn’t really care who will be his roommate anymore, only the desire to sleep clog his mind.

When it’s finally his turn, he starts looking for his name.

_Lee Minho :_

_\- Hwang Hyunjin_

_\- Kim Seungmin_

__

Fucking hell.

Minho grunts, lowering down his head. What the fuck is Hwang Hyunjin doing here?

Hwang Hyunjin is a spoiled brat he has seen too often in his life. He isn’t really someone he despise, on contrary, the kid’s adorable from time to time and he follows Minho like an annoying little 5 years old. The problem is, Hyunjin for being a noble and having almost grown with him, knows the older’s financial statue and family’s race far too well. Minho knows as much, if not more, about Hyunjin than the younger about him, so he doesn’t really feel threatened. Though it is annoying.

There’s another name written beside his. Kim Seungmin. Another annoying one.

Minho sighs in irritation. He hesitates between picking Seungmin or Hyunjin.

God he just wants to _sleep_.

**[CHOICE]**

_Which roommate should Minho choose?_

_Hwang Hyunjin_ vs _Kim Seungmin_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a choice here with the results already shown because it was pre-posted in twitter


	5. “I threw myself with trust in me But why am I being swayed I threw myself with trust in me But why am I just being hurt”

Minho has always been reckless. He doesn’t think ahead his actions, taking decision based on his feelings rather than logic, and that is something his teachers and parents had constantly scolded him on.

One time, while coming back from an event he had to attend, he found an orange kitten sitting at the foot of their long metallic doors. It had been raining heavily and thunder tore the night sky, but the young boy that he was had heard the whimpering of the cat. He had ran out of the carriage despite the fear shattering his chest to find the scared cat only to later stumble in the castle with wet dripping clothes and mud dirtying the pristine floor.

His father had been _furious_. Lee Minho, even if he was only seven, was a lord. He wasn’t supposed to run around looking disheveled and dirty. Details of what ensued and the harsh words that had been screamed at him doesn’t really matter now. What did, is that the trembling kitten that was pressed against his chest had been taken away from him before he got locked in his bedroom. He had thought his parents would understand the necessity to save that cat. No, frankly speaking, he hadn’t thought, he had acted. If he had, he would have known to hide the animal and control both his facial expressions and emotions.

His mistake had costed him big. He never learned what had happened to the cat.

Minho doesn’t know why he is reminded of that day now of all time. He doesn’t know if choosing Seungmin over Hyunjin, a stranger over a friend, is a wise choice. He doesn’t know because he haven’t thought about it. He just followed his heart, who’s protesting at the idea of seeing and having to talk with Hwang Hyunjin just yet. He is part of a past that he is trying to run away from. He doesn’t want to hear his condolences, doesn’t want to be forced to remember what forced him to come to Orenda.

Minho goes to sit back on one of the long tables. Once everyone is done, a man with long grey hair and missing teeth starts calling names, assigning everyone a room.

“Lee Minho and Kim Seungmin, room 4419!”

Without wasting another second, he stands up and starts walking to the door. He waits up for Seungmin in the main hall, where it’s less crowded and the light is less blinding. Head against the wall behind him, a shattered sigh escapes his parted lips.

“Shall we go?”

Minho opens his eyes and straighten his position. With a nod and a casual smile, they start walking toward a direction Seungmin choose.

“Do you know the way?”

Seungmin nods, throwing him a look above his shoulder. “Yeah” he takes the left side stairs and then walks straight ahead. “We are going to the southern building with 4 floors of bedrooms. The right wing is for the female students and the left for male. From there, you just have to find your room number.”

They stay silent after that, and Minho lets Seungmin guides him. The silence is comfortable, neither of them expecting the other to say anything. It’s peaceful, in a way, footsteps echoing against the tall walls of a dark lighted castle as if they are alone in the world. It would have been tense and awkward with Hyunjin, Minho surprises himself thinking. Seungmin on the other hand, is a stranger. They don’t expect anything from each other. That’s what he had hoped when he choose him; the abscess of judgement and worried eyes.

The forth floor is the highest one in this part of the castle. The stairs open to a rectangular hall with huge paintings taking the whole wall. The yellow lamp sends it’s shadow on the painted figures and as Minho and Seungmin walk down the hall, it feels like their eyes are following them.

They keep walking straight ahead, the walls getting closer until it’s only one long tight hall with identical pattern. There are doors on either side with a white statue besides each. As much as the castle is a beautiful and gorgeous place, Minho doesn’t have any delusions about its creepy and ugly sides. The place sends chills down his back.

“There’s about 1000 to 1500 students. We room by two so that’s 500 to 750 bedrooms. 125 to 374 by floor. 63 to 188 for the male students and the same amount for the female students.” Seungmin starts walking down the hall, examining the numbers printed besides each door. “We are in the 4th floor, around 125 or 374 occupied bedrooms. Left wing so this hall has about 63 or 188 rooms.”

Minho throws a look to his roommate with a single raised eyebrow. “Are you always this precise?”

Seungmin shrugs, stopping by room 4419. “I like to be familiar with my surroundings.”

The room is neither big nor small. A decent size, but that’s from Minho’s point of view who’s been living in a castle almost all his life. There are two queen beds on the left side of the wall, a balcony straight ahead, and a bathroom door to their right. There’s two paintings on either side of a wall, but it’s too dark to tell which story they paint. Between their beds, is a door mirroring the bathroom’s one but with a closet behind it.

“Do you have any preference on the bed?” Seungmin asks, opening the closet as he speaks.

Minho walks toward the balcony before he sits on the bed closest to it. “I’d like this one.” He doesn’t turn around to see his roommate nod, only assuming that he did when no sign of disagreement comes from him.

“There’s pyjamas” Seungmin says, throwing one on the older’s bed. “I guess the rest of the uniforms will come later.” He speaks in a tone that barely goes above a whisper despite the noises from the other students discovering their rooms. His voice is calming, easing Minho’s tense nerves. Almost like a lullaby.

He closes his eyes before his back falls on the bed. He heaves a sign of relief. Seungmin mutters something about taking a bath, but it goes unheard.

Before he realizes it, he falls asleep.

—

September 2nd

7:50am

Shouts are what wakes Minho up the next morning. For a moment, he can’t figure out where he is and why there’s the sound of a boy yelling somewhere behind walls. He is an only child after all and never has he been waken up in such a way.

“CHANGBIN HYUNG! CHAN HYUNG! C’MON” the familiar voice whines from afar. “I will NEVER forgive you if there’s no available places in Poetry class. YOU CAN SLEEP LATER LETS GO!”

Minho grunts, throwing himself off the bed as if he’s the one being scolded. His muscles aches and sleep still lingers in his half opened eyelids. He regrets now falling asleep with his clothes still on.

Before he goes take a shower, he grabs a pillow from his bed and throws it on his roommate’s head. “Wake up I’m going to get lost without you.”

He doesn't know if they're close enough for him to wake him so abruptly, but Minho is too tired and stressed to care.

Seungmin grumbles incomprehensible words, showing no sign that he is planning on moving, but when the older finishes with his shower, he is already waiting to take his.

"What time is it anyway?" his roommate asks, adjusting his uniform as they walk down the hall. "I need a cup of coffee to wake up."

Minho shrugs, wide curious eyes looking around him in wonder like a child seeing things for the first time in his life. Now that the sun is high in the sky, he can properly admire the beauty of the place. It's crowded and noisy as students run down the hall and excitedly chatters with their friends, but it's peaceful. He had missed it; the presence of numerous people around him.

When they enter the long rectangular room from last night, the long tables are now filled with food. Some are sitting and eating, others are standing by as they talk in small circles. The sunlight is filtrating through the tall windows, bathing the cafeteria in a honey light.

"C'mon grab something we don't have time to eat." Seungmin says as he takes two chocolate chip muffins and shoves one in Minho's hands. "If we're late all the good classes are going to be taken."

Minho frowns in confusion. "Wait what?" he shouts, running after Seungmin who already has left the cafeteria.

"Orenda is a one year thing. Classes are not assigned based on the year and course like other universities." They exit the castle to cross the garden. "There are a big range of classes you can take, but the places are limited. First come first served."

"I really wanted to take guitar lessons last year but Jisung took the last place. I don't even know why he took it, he's already good in it."

"Wait- Jisung as in Han Jisung?"

Seungmin sends him a side glance, eyebrows frowned. "Yeah?"

"You didn't say his full name, as if you guys are friends." Minho raises an eyebrow to which Seungmin shrugs. "Kind of?" he runs his hand in his hair. "I came to Orenda last year but only stayed three months. Something happened with my family and I had to leave. I met Jisung back then."

"And what? You guys fought so you are warning new students to stay away from them?" Minho doesn’t know why it angers him. Maybe he hadn’t expected Seungmin to be the kind to wiggle with high school dramas.

Seungmin slows down on his pace until he stops walking. They are now close to a building where a lot of students are gathered around. "No." he throws Minho a side glance before tiptoeing to see above the small crowd. "I said to be careful of 3racha because it's the truth. I never said that they are bad people, Jisung is a friend. Though I still stand with what I said, your secrets will be safer if you stay away from them and don't anger them. Didn't you read Orenda's newspaper?"

When he doesn't get any response, he sighs and turns around to face Minho. "It's extremely hard to be accepted to Orenda for a second year. To do so, you must have had high points and at least two secrets undiscovered. I got the chance because I only attended three months last year." Seungmin points with his chin a certain direction, and when Minho follows his gaze, his eyes meet the three boys from last night standing a couple of feet away from them. He recognizes the purple haired Chris, Han Jisung, and what must be Changbin. "Those three, have been accepted for a third year _in a row_. Very rare people have made it for a second year consecutively, must are readmitted after one or more years of failed attempts. No one had been accepted _three times_ a year after the other. Well, except those three. Every time, they come extremely close to winning. Apparently this year is the one." 

Minho doesn't know what to think or what to say, so he only stares at Seungmin dumbfounded. "The students change every year, so they don’t have to worry about any of their secrets that got discovered previous years. If there’s an old student who knows, they threaten them or kick them out before they have time to say a word. It’s that easy for 3racha. I'm not talking crap about them because of some kind of grudge, I'm only stating facts."

"How do you know this much anyway if you've been here for only a couple of months?" Minho asks when his tongue finally learns how to move again.

"I told you last night, I like to be familiar with my surroundings." Seungmin responds to which Minho frowns at. “I still don't get it. Why be Han Jisung’s friend if you think you'll be safer away from him and his friends?"

Seungmin scoffs. He stays silent for a long second before he says; "Jisung is a very likable person. He's hard to resist. I guess the risk is worth it."

Before Minho can think of anything else to ask, the younger grab his wrist and pulls him toward the administration building. There are sheets hung on the walls, with name of lessons and classes. Seungmin explains that they have to write their names in at least 7. One of them being a course every student who attends for the first time has to take for two months;Manners and how to Act in Society, MAS for short.

“That class is both a blessing and a curse.” He says with a laugh. “It’s extremely easy to figure students’ financial statue, you just have to observe how they act and how well or bad they do.” His face turns unto a grimace. “What’s hard is that you need to be a very good actor if you don’t want them to discover _your_ first secret.”

Minho writes down his name in five sheets that sparkle his interest; Archery, History of Species, Chemistry of Potions, Dance, and Poetry. For his last choice, he hesitates between two.

_**[CHOICE]** _

_Piano class_ vs _First Aid class_

After choosing his last class, Minho turns around to face Seungmin who've been waiting for him, munching on his muffin. "What now?"

"ANYONE UP FOR SOME SOCCER?"

Everyone in the wall turn their head simultaneously. Chris is standing in the middle of the crowd, a ball under his arm and a big smile on his lips. People immediately gather around him like a magnet.

"What is his full name anyway?"

Seungmin starts walking after the students, heading toward the gardens. "Christopher Bang or Bang Chan. He's 23 years old, 3racha's unofficial leader and Orenda's heartthrob. There's absolutely nothing he doesn't excel in." 

They walk out unto the fiel, the grass green and bright under them. Flowers are blooming around them, some bathing under the sun others using trees as shadow. A handful of students divide unto two teams; one lead by Bang Chan, and the other by Hwang Hyunjin. Seungmin and Minho, along with the rest of the students, sit on the ground around them, observing the match in a loud enthusiasm.

_** UNLOCKED LOCATION : Orenda’s garden, by morning  ** _

_** Credit : [gisforgeorgina](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bir24ENHSy3/) in Instagram ** _

The game had started for a good 15 minutes when someone approaches them. "Sorry, can I sit with you guys?"

It's a boy Minho has already seen before. His familiar freckles that had almost vanished in the darkness of London's streets two nights ago are now shining on his cheeks, sparkling under the sun. His blonde dyed hair are falling over his forehead, a wide timid smile stretching his face.

"Yes of course." Seungmin says, signaling him to sit down beside them under the tree they are hiding under.

"I think we met already didn't we?" Felix asks, turning around to face Minho. "In the clothing shop? I'm sorry again for crashing unto you."

"Oh don't mind it. I haven't been paying attention." Minho’s smile is small and polite. He isn't one to hold baseless grudges.

Seungmin stares between the two before he offers his hand to Felix. "I'm Kim Seungmin, and this scary guy over here is Minho."

Felix offers them a smile that makes his eyes turn unto two moon crescents.

Minho's heart skips a bit. He knows that smile.

"I'm Lee Felix."

Minho stops breathing.

It's as if space has sucked all air out of the world. As if a bomb has fallen on his head. As if his lungs have suddenly and abruptly forgotten how to do something as simple as _fucking_ _breathe_. Then suddenly, his heart starts furiously beating, hitting his chest painfully in a race against his emotions. His hands are trembling, struck by a lightening that he didn't see coming until it stroke his whole being.

_No_ , his voice whines in his head, almost identical to the whimpers of the terrified and injured kitten from so long ago, _no no no no._

_No this is not possible._

His face betrays a hint of his falling apart soul, his mask cracking like a glass that had been put under the pressure of a freezing cold. Seungmin and Felix are talking and laughing with each other, not a single glance toward him. For once, Minho is grateful for all the training he had to go through in under to control his facial expressions, to learn how to only crash and burn from the inside. He stands up slowly, as if everything would shatter and crumble to the ground at any abrupt move.

Seungmin throws him a glance above Felix’s shoulder who’s fervently ranting to him about something. Minho only offers a casual small smile he has practiced too much in his life before he turns around and leave.

He slowly walks back through the garden. A couple of minutes ago, Minho had found it majestic in its beauty but now, it’s _too_ big. The sun _too_ blinding. The heat _too_ suffocating. The scents _too_ over present. Everything is suddenly _too_ much.

It's only when he is in the safety of the deserted castle does his legs break under him, sending him in the arms of the cold merciless floor. His back pressed against the wall behind him, he focuses on forcing air through his closed up chest.

All of _his_ features suddenly become too familiar; his freckles, his smile, the way his eyes are shaped when he laughs. _His name._ Lee Felix is not a common name like Lee Minho, and it makes it all the worse. If _he_ grew up, he must be his age. If he grew up, he must look like him. If he grew up, he must speak like him. If he grew up, he must have his smile. If. If. Fucking _If._

Minho runs his hands in his hair, his head falling in his palms. This can't be happening. This is not happening. It's not possible.

His eyes start stinging but no tear blur his vision.

He takes in a breathe that comes in easier than the others. They just have the same name. It's just a coincidence.

Even if- even if he _really is_ \- Minho _can't_ \- he can't possibly-

A sudden noise makes him startles and abruptly stands up. There are two hallways on either side of him.

The right one is dimly lit, with a small closed door to the far end.

The left one is brighter, with sunlight pouring all across the floor.

Minho doesn't know where the sound came from, but he needs to get moving if he doesn't want anyone to see him in such a state.

_** [CHOICE]  ** _

_ Which hallway should Minho take? _

_Right one; dimly lit_ vs _Left one; bright sunny_


	6. “Well you look like yourself But you're somebody else Only it ain't on the surface Well you talk like yourself No, I hear someone else though Now you're making me nervous”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Polls RESULTS : 
> 
> Piano Class 41,2%   
> First Aid Class 58,8%
> 
> Right one; dimly lit 66,7%  
> Left one; bright sunny 33,3%

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : 1st floor basement** _

_**Credit : Ann Street Studio** _

_**** _

The door at the end of the right hallway cracks and wince when Minho pushes it open. Dust flies all over his face, making him cough, as of it was just waiting to be freed. There is a fly of stairs going down, and without hesitating, Minho closes the door behind him and descend into the darkness. Candles are on the ground, weakly illuminating what looks like the basement. To the foot of the stairs, is an open area where a rusted chandelier is hanging close to the ground. A chair is resting close to a wall, beside a painting so much darkened by time that Minho can barely see what it used to picture.

On the other wall, is a metallic bench, and a painting on the floor. The man showcased on it looks upset, as if he feels offended to have been lowered to the ground. A couple of feet away from him, is a red carpet that looks like it needs a good wash. Minho follows the carpet, and it leads him down a long hallway lighted by multiple candles. Despite the gloomy atmosphere, Minho isn’t scared. It’s calming, ina way. It makes him feel empty. As if nothing matters and nothing has ever mattered. It frees his preoccupied mind.

The hallway leads him to a room big enough to be used as a ballroom. There’s a single small window on one of the walls, allowing some natural light in and letting him know that he isn’t as much underground as he thought he was. There’s no type of fourniture, only dusted and dirty floor and walls. His feet echoes against the high ceiling when he walks further unto the place.

In one of the corners, is a piano that looks a thousand years old. Most of the keys are broken, unequal in high. They are greasy and darkened, a blanket of dust covering them from the chilliness of the basement.

Minho can’t stop his hands from moving forward. He rests his fingers on the instrument, as if a magnet is diving them toward it. He presses a key, the sound resonating so loud that it makes him startle.

“Who’s here?” A panicked voice suddenly asks.

Minho whips his head around, searching for the person who had spoken. Carefully, mouth tightly shout, he quietly walks to the opposite door he had came from. Around the corner, is the figure of a student. His back is pressed against a door, face merged in terror as if he is about to faint. His hair is as blue as the sea, and his eyes are searching around him, open wide in their shaking state.

“Me” Minho responds, walking out of the room. He feels bad for leaving the poor kid in fear.

To his surprise, the stranger looks even more terrorized.

“What are you doing here?” He asks in a sharp voice that only fear can muster.

Minho grins and lifts an eyebrow. He rests his shoulder against the doorframe, arms folded on his chest. “Am I not allowed too?”

The male student presses his lips tightly, looking down at his feet. He uncomfortably jumps from one foot to the other, as if unsure if he should put distance between him and the door behind him or try hide it with his body. “I-I was just curious. Don’t get the wrong idea. I am not a siren I don’t have anything to do with that.”

There’s a tense silence before Minho scoffs a laugh who quickly turns unto a fist of laughter. He comically whips an invisible tear from the corner of his eyes, then forces himself to calm down and focus back his attention on the kid. One of his eyebrows is frowned and a visible pout is on his lips.

“I didn’t say anything!” Minho says, raising his hands protectively. “You were the one who sold yourself out.”

He throws a glance to the room behind the stranger’s shoulder.

“What is that room anyway?”

The student stiffens before he murmurs incredulously between his lips. “You don’t know?”

Minho shrugs, hands in his pant’s pockets. “It’s my first year.”

The blue haired boy curses under his lips. “It’s the pool.” He growls, staring straight at the young men in front of him. Minho grins, taking a step toward him before ruffling his ocean hair. “Thank you for the secret. I won’t take care of it.” He whispers before walking away.

“Wait!”

He turns around, a questioning eyebrow raised high.

“At least tell me your name.”

A smile creeps unto his lips. “It’s Minho”

The stranger smiles, dimples digging in his cheeks. “I’m Jeongin”

Minho smiles at him, intrigued. How can he smile when he just revealed one of his secrets by mistake? “Got it IN-nie! Next time, try to not stress talk your secrets.” He winks at him and walks away.

“I didn’t say that was my name!” The boy screams, to which the other ignores. IN just fits right.

-

Minho makes his way back to the main floor.

He tries not to think about Lee Felix, throwing his image to the back of his head. At each of his step, he repeats in his mind like a mantra _‘They just have the same name. They just have the same name. They just have the same name. They just-‘_

It doesn’t really work.

His chest feels like breaking at every beat of his heart, eyes lost on the floor, unseeing as he walks aimlessly wherever his feet take him. His mind wonders far away, teleporting between the past and the futur. The last day he saw _his_ Felix, the last smile, the last cry of pain, the last tear, the last time they called each other’s name. It’s hard to remember, everything had been blurred by time, but oh how could Minho forget? The last time he saw his Felix, the boy had become a stranger in the body of the boy Minho cared the most in his life. It was something hard to forget no matter how much he had wanted too.

All those years, Minho had forced himself, had convinced himself, that Lee Felix was gone. Never to be seen again. Yet, here he is, suddenly doubting everything the moment someone show up with the same name.

Sighing heavily, he stops walking. He lifts his head and looks around him, but Minho has no idea for how long and how far he had roamed. He had just turned a corner when his eyes meet familiar ones.

Cursing under his breathe, he turns around to try run away. He really is not in the mood to have a talk with Hyunjin.

“I saw you.”

Minho sighs again. He stops walking, slowly turns around and heads towards him.

Hyunjin’s svelte body is leaning against the wall behind him. His eyes are fixed on the garden in front of him while he is protected from the newborn rain under a porch.

“You know you can’t avoid me forever right?” He turns his head to meet his eyes, to which Minho looks away from.

Hands protectively hidden in his pockets; he swings on his feet’s sole.

“I’m sorry for what happened to your parents.“

“No” Minho shakes his head. He stops moving.He can feel Hyunjin’s eyes on him but he stubbornly doesn’t meet them. His stomach flips, his heart aches. “Don’t apologize unless you have something to do with their deaths.”

He turns to face him, face carefully stone cold, although he knows Hyunjin sees right through his mask. “That’s all everyone finds to say. I’m sorry here, I’m sorry there. Yeah well I’m sorry too, but it’s not going to bring them back to life is it?”

Hyunjin’s face melt in sadness and Minho looks away. His vision blurs but oh how easy it is to blink the tears away.

No one says anything.

The rain is dripping on the grass and ground, finally finishing it’s crazy race before starting yet another cycle from the ground to the sky back to ground. Minho walks to the edge of the porch before he crouches down. His fingers gently caress some leaves, wetting his skin. That’s how his life has become: a repeating cycle, losing the only people he cares for again and again. As if Lee Minho has been cursed from birth.

“Do you remember that one time when we competed and were asked to make a love potion?” Hyunjin asks, voice gentle as if careful not to scare Minho away. “Mr. and Mrs. Lee were so proud of you when you won that gold medal. I had never seen anyone be as proud of their child as they were.”

Minho remembers. He remembers the smile on his mother’s face, the way she looked ten years younger as she squealed in joy, trying not to jump around. He remembers the way his father’s shoulders raised high as he bragged to whoever wanted to hear that the winner is his son. He remembers that the sun had been warm and bright. Remembers that his hair had been ruffled and his cheeks hurt from how much he smiled. He remembers how the gentle caress of carelessness felt like.

“Don’t worry, I already casted a silence spell. No one can hear our conversation.” Hyunjin says with a small smile when Minho glares at him above his shoulder.

After yet another sigh, Minho stands up. "I only won because you've always been a terrible witch."

"Ouch."

"That dog of yours to who you gave the love potion, he only ended up hating you."

"Kkami doesn't hate me!" Hyunjin bickers in an offended voice. "Besides, I was eight."

Minho turns around toward him and lifts an eyebrow. "And I was ten. I still was and still is a better witch than you."

"I want a rematch." Hyunjin walks away from the wall, a small challenging smile on his lips.

"I don't think you'll ever manage to make Kkami like you even the slightest."

They both scoffs a laugh.

It feels like years ago the last time they comfortably talked like this. It doesn't, barely half a year ago before Minho's mother fell sick and his father was found bathing in his own blood. Both of their families were witches for centuries; him and Hyunjin had grown up in each other’s castles, doing competitions, studying or attending formal events together. Hyunjin had been present in almost every corner of Minho’s memories. He had come to the funeral, but Minho had closed himself in mutism back then. He had missed this. He had missed him.

But Minho's heart hasn’t stoped aching and bleeding yet. It still hurts. It's not Hyunjin's fault, neither is it his. It’s just that laughing still feels so awfully wrong.

“I just meant to say that you are the best thing your parents had. They were so proud of you and loved you _so much_ Hyung. Your name was on Mrs. Lee’s lips from sunrise to sundown. You were all she would talk about.” Hyunjin’s voice wavers. Minho throws him a small forced smile above his shoulder. “Yet, I wasn’t able to do anything for either of them. Love is crippled in the face of death.”

There's a silence that crawls between them. It's not tense, neither is it comfortable, but rather awkward. For Minho, so much has changed in his life that he doesn’t know how to address Hyunjin like before. Like he used too. He doesn’t even know who he is anymore.

"C'mon, I think lunch must be ready."

Minho shakes his head. The simple action of picturing food makes his stomach protests. Stress and eating don’t go well together for him. “No thanks. Go on ahead.”

Hyunjin stares at him for a long second. It seems like he’s fighting for a decision before he nods. “See you at dinner?”

He only leaves when the older agrees to something he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to fulfill.

_**[CHOICE]** _

_Yes attend dinner_ VS _No go back to his room_

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : Library** _

_ _

Minho finds refuge in the library, like he always had since his childhood. Books are loyal friends that doesn’t know the meaning of betrayal. He used to hide a lot within them, whenever loneliness suffocated his heart or when anyone scolded him, and he needed somewhere to go and just _forget_.

The library is in the building next to the main hall. It is so big that it was hard to miss.

He takes place beside a window, and loses himself in books; from philosophy, to poetry, chemistry to novels. Everything and anything is a good place to lose himself in. The smell of both old and fresh parchments intoxicates his brain, and before he knows it, between a Victor Hugo poetry book and an essay about drugs interactions, he notices that the sun is already setting. He is about to stand up and put the books back when someone suddenly sits in front of him.

“I hadn’t expected anyone to be here before class even starts.”

It’s the red-haired professor that met them at their arrival and guided them to Orenda; Professor Rose.

Minho sits back down on his chair. It isn’t a pain to hide his annoyance, he had been trained to do so. “I got bored, and sports has never been my thing.” He says with a polite smile.

She leans back on her chair, raising her hands as if backing away from a fight. “A studious student! I hope I have you in one of my classes. What did you choose?”

“MAS, Archery, History of Species, Chemistry of Potions, Dance, Poetry and First aid.” He counts. He already had lessons of History of specie, MAS, poetry, dance and Chemistry of potions back in the castle, there is very few things he hadn’t already been forced to study. Nevertheless, they were still one of his favorites. Archery and First aid are both lessons he never took, sparkling his interest the most.

Professor Rose claps her hand in excitement. “I give Archery! I’m so glad I’ll have you as a student.” She leans forward, her voice barely above a whisper. “I gave guitar too last year, along with philosophy, but I decided to fully focus on Archery this year.” She recoils, pursuing her lips in concentration. Eyes sparkling in excitement and passion. “Archery is one of the only class that is devoid of any prejudice. It doesn’t discriminate the poor and the rich; anyone can have the chance to learn it. Suffice an arrow and a bow!”

An easy smile softens Minho’s tense face. He could sit and listen to someone talk about something or someone they are passionate about for hours. The way their whole face illuminate and eyes merge unto two moons makes him wonder; how can someone express so much emotions in a single face?

“I never had the chance to learn archery. I’m looking forward to your class Professor.”

The woman’s smile softens unto a casual one. She puts her hand on Minho’s as she stands up. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask me Minho.”

With that, she is gone.

Minho stares at the corner she disappeared unto. Something is troubling his mind.

“If I were you, I would take that more like a threat than anything else.”

A young man is standing against the wall. Minho hadn’t noticed him, so he must have been hidden behind one of the tall bookcases. His hair is black, eyes sharp like two spears. He has muscular arms that are wrapped above his chest. It’s Changbin, one of those 3racha kids.

Minho can’t help but scoff. Is that how they work? Their leader drags the whole school to a soccer match, batting his eyelashes and flexing his sport skills so everyone falls head over hills for him. In the meantime, it’s a great distraction for his two friends to roam around the castle like ghosts and spy on the rest of the students that had secluded themselves.

It’s a great plan, he can’t deny it.

Changbin must have noticed the way Minho is glaring at him because he raises his hands protectively. “I’m only saying. No one is nice just because. They always expect something back.”

There are no more words exchanged. Minho stands up and leaves.

Something is still bothering his mind.

Class haven’t even started yet, how did Professor Rose know his name between thousand of students?

__


	7. “Daisies on your nightstand, never forget it Blossom in the moonlight, screw eyes Glacial with the blue ice I'm terrifying I'm no Cinderella, but I like the shoes”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Polls RESULTS :
> 
> Should Minho attend dinner? 
> 
> Yes, attend dinner 62,5%  
> No, go back to his room 37,5%

Minho didn’t want Hyunjin to be on his back, worried as he is, so he ended going to dinner.

“Minho!”

Speaking of the devil, Hyunjin meets him in the main hall leading to the cafeteria. He has a huge smile on his face, and he looks somehow relieved to see him. “You came!”

“I did”

He can’t summon the strength to fake a smile, so he doesn’t bother trying to bring one up his lips.

Hyunjin doesn’t comment on it, and they simply walk unto the big rectangular room side by side.

As soon as they pass the doors, the loud chatters hit their ears, and it’s suddenly hard to hear each other. Food is splattered on all the length of the two tables. Students looks pleased, enjoying what they have left of free will before class starts. Seungmin is one of them, and he waves at Minho and Hyunjin when they are visible within the room.

“Kim Seungmin, this is Hwang Hyunjin. Hyunjin, this is Seungmin, my roommate.” 

Seungmin and Hyunjin greets each other warmly.

He notices Felix sitting on his roommates’ right side and even though Minho had somehow tried to prepare himself, his heart still drops.

“This is Lee Felix, a..” He trails off, not really knowing how to present him. It’s not like they are friends or anything. Nothing but strangers.

“A simple student like many others.” Felix completes with a smile, to which Hyunjin grins at. “No one is as mundane as they pretend to be. Proof, you have been accepted in Orenda.”

Hyunjin is right, Minho realizes. Orenda’s acceptance criteria are kept a complete secret. Obviously, they don’t choose their students based on their financial statue. They hadn’t asked Minho for his education record, most if not all lower classes can’t afford one anyway, so that also is not something they look at while choosing them. Then how? How do they pick who has the honour to attend in the first place? Surely it is not based on some hazard game.

Wicked, is what this whole academia and its students are.

“My brother attended two years ago. I only joined him this year.” Felix says the moment Minho focuses back on the conversation. His heart didn’t have the time to start its crazy race after it had abruptly decided to stop when someone approaches their table.

He has blue hair and a dimpled smile.

Felix hits the available sit in front of him, urging the new arrivant to take place. “Ahh here he is! Jeongin we were talking about you.”

“You were?” Jeongin asks, throwing a glance around the table as he pants. Minho can barely hear him between the loud noises around them. “Name’s Yang Jeongin and I thought I had missed dinner so I ran here.” He displays a malicious kid like smile for anyone to see.

“I was telling them how you attended Orenda two years ago.”

They continue talking, Hyunjin and Seungmin showering them with questions, but Minho can’t keep up. His mind is still stuck on the word Felix had uttered a while ago in the conversation. Oxygen lacks to arrive to his brain and tell him what to fucking do and how to react.

“Wait,” Minho cuts short unto whatever they had been talking about. He receives surprised looks to which he tries to act as unbothered in front of as he can muster. _Don’t freak out_ , he begs his heart. _Please don’t fucking freak out_. _Please_.

“You said brother? You guys are brothers?”

There’s a short heavy awkward and confused silence before Jeongin and Felix answers at the same time. “Yeah, we are.”

Felix laughs before he adds. “We indeed are brothers!”

“That must be so relieving to attend with a family member!” Hyunjin whines, inflating his cheeks like helium in a birthday’s balloon.

“But you guys don’t have the same last name.” Minho cracks out, his voice sounding sharp and edgy. It’s the only way he can divert his uncontrollable emotions that he cannot explain to any of them.

They all look at him in shock, Felix and Jeongin with pain on their faces while Seungmin is stabbing him with his eyes. Hyunjin just looks confused. He must know that something is wrong. Heck he knows Minho never lacks politeness and manners but here he is, being rude and intrusive. It’s just that Minho needs to know, and Hyunjin doesn’t understand that. He _can’t_ understand, or Minho would be screwed.

“I- I’m sorry, that was rude.” He waves his hands in front of him, faking an apologetic face. “You don’t have to understand that, I get it if we’re not supposed to know.”

Now, he has cowered them unto a wall, and the two brothers perfectly know it. If they don’t answer, it’ll look like whatever the bond they share is, it’s a secret, and everyone knowssecrets can’t be kept inside these castle walls.

Minho knows he is acting like an ass, but he needs to _know_. It’s now or never.

“No it’s okey.” Felix says with his never fading smile. Minho wonders how many of them has he faked. “I was adopted and preferred to keep my birth last name that’s why.” 

Hyunjin offers him a smile, painfully obvious that he’s trying to change the subject. “I wish I had a sibling. I’m an only child.”

“I am as well.” Minho says with a voice that he tries to keep even. “It doesn’t bother me though. I only have myself to take care of and it’s enough.” He stands up, and for a moment, he can almost swear that pain flashes across Felix’s eyes. _Almost_.

“Where are you going?” Seungmin asks, looking up at him.

“I’m still unfamiliar with everything and it makes my stomach uneasy.” He takes a few steps back, focusing his whole attention on Seungmin and no one else. “See you in our room.”

With that, Minho is gone.

As soon, as he is out of sight, that the hallways becomes deserted and it’s only the sound of his shattered breath against the high golden ceilings, he starts running. Minho runs until he has no where else to go. Until he arrives to his room and he forces his legs to stop moving and his body to crumble to the ground so it wouldn’t convince him to run away. To get off this stupid project.

He doesn’t deserve Felix. Even if he really is who Minho thinks he is, he can’t let him know. He can’t do this to him. Felix has a brother. Anamazing cute little brother who can muster wide and honest smiles. Not like Minho’s plastic fake ones. Felix, if things go well for him, has the chance and opportunity to start his life anew. Felix doesn’t deserve to have his life destroyed by Minho’s pathetic and selfish feelings. He can’t take care of him anyway. He has nothing to offer him but pathetic apologies that he doesn’t really mean and a shared fading trauma from years ago.

Tears clogging his vision, back against the door, sitting on the merciless floor as sobs quietly racks his chest, Minho allows himself to be weak. _Only a minute_ , he pleads to himself, _I’ll be weak for only a minute_. After that, he promises himself to stand up, wash his face, change unto his pyjamas and never allow a single traitorous emotion on his face for as long as he is in Orenda. For only a minute he’ll allow his heart to believe that Felix may be _him_. Only a minute and then he’ll forces unto his brain that this Felix is a stranger, that _his_ Felix is truly dead or somewhere else in the world. _Just a minute,_ he hiccups, _please let me crumble for just a minute._

And so that’s how long Minho gives himself. A minute. He starts counting down from 60, and when he reaches 0, he does as he had said he would: stands up, throws water on his face and changes unto his pyjamas.

He was about to throw himself on his bed when he notices some fresh parchment on his desk.

Right, he needs to send Jeongin’s secret before anyone else does. He writes down what he has too, folds it, and leave it on the desk to send it tomorrow.

_Yang Jeongin is a siren_

__

**[CHOICE]** 👀vs 😇

September 3rd,

The next morning, Minho’s body clock has gotten a lot better. By 6am, as he usually did in his home, he is already awake.

The uniforms and change of clothes have been brought to them, whenever that happened because no one saw anyone bringing them, and are now filling their closets. Minho takes one out, showers, changes unto a new pair of uniform, and with his letter in hand, he is ready to leave the dorm room when 6:30 hits the clock.

“Already awake?” Seungmin mumbles, rubbing his eyes sleepily just as Minho was about to leave. “Yes sleeping beauty. By the way, I’m glad you’re awake, how are we supposed to get our schedule?”

“In your desk’s drawer.” His roommates yawn, flipping his legs off the bed. He is right, his carefully printed schedule is waiting for him where the boy had said it would. Minho once again wonders how they managed to make it this fast in less than 24 hours. He runs his eyes across it quickly. He has MAS from 8am to 11, History of species from 12 to 3pm and two hours of poetry starting at 4pm. Being used to such packed schedule, he isn’t really surprised or deceived. With a grateful nod toward Seungmin, he leaves the room.

The women that greats him in the administration wing, that Minho had great pain finding his way too, glares at him when he gives her the letter.

“Don’t you have a raven or an owl? Go to the greenhouse, you’ll find a man there who’ll give you one.”

Minho is quite confused, but from her sour mood, he doesn’t risk asking further. Seungmin is not by his side to harass with questions, so the only solution he finds is to actually go to the location she had mentioned.

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : Greenhouse** _

Cr: Paul Moon Photohraphy

It takes him a good 30 minutes to find his way and when he does, it’s already 7:15am. An old man is watering a family of daisies, accompanied by a purple haired student who’s laughing at something the elder had said, a basket full of the said flowers in his hands. When he sees Minho approaching, he abruptly stops, says something to the man, leaves the basket in the middle of the field of daisies, and retreats toward a tree. Under its shadow, Minho observes as Bang Chan lays down under it and with his hands as a pillow under his head, he closes his eyes.

Minho wonders why he feels offended, like the familiar feeling of embarrassment when someone barges in somewhere they aren’t welcomed in. He had seen the way Chan’s smile dropped, and for a strange reason, it hurt Minho.

“How can I help you young man?”

Adverting his eyes away from Chan, he smiles shyly. “I was told I can get a raven or an owl here? To send letters?”

The grey-haired man nods with a laugh that makes his stomach moves up and down. His laugh sounds like Santa Claus’ if that is even possible. “Of course dear, come with me.”

They walk around a gigantic greenhouse, and advance toward a part of the garden where a bunch of owls and ravens are kept. Some are flying around, others resting on trees or eating grains that had been placed especially for them. “Do you want a raven or an owl?” The man approaches the birds and starts petting a snow owl. “They are all trained and will deliver the letter wherever you ask them too within Orenda.”

Minho throws a glance around him. He can feel Chan’s eyes from a distance, but he doesn’t turn his head to let him know that he has felt his burning stare on his back.

“A raven please.”

Credit : r/itookapicture

The man sends him wide surprised eyes.

“That’s a surprise! Rare are those who choose Ravens. They are said to be-”

“Cursed, I know.” He walks close to a raven that is standing on a wooden fence and gives him his finger. The black bird at first starts loudly croaking at him, its mouth dangerously close to his hand. Minho doesn’t move, and when the raven notices that, he stops, seems to glare at the object of wonder in front of him and then gives his head to the human in front of him who slowly and gently pets it. “People start cussing anyone they’re scared of. They are terrified of what reminds them of themselves. Everyone has a dark side and they think this poor animal will bring their sins out.”

The man nods, a serious look on his face.

“Those are wise words young man.”

Minho doesn’t answer. He leans his hand toward the raven’s legs, who immediately climbs on it and secure its claws around his wrist.

“The raven you have is a female. They are wise and loyal animals if they find a liking to you. Give me your name and I’ll send her food and cage. Don’t put her in it unless it’s extremely necessary, a bird’s place is within the sky. She can find food alone, but you can give her what I’ll give you as treats. When you’ll run out, comeback to see me.”

The raven croaks, sounding excited. She has white marks on her head, like stars on a pitch-black night. “You’re gorgeous.” Minho whispers to her when the man walks away to get something to write on.

“What’s your name young man?” he asks when he comes back.

“Lee Minho. Room 4419.”

“Have you heard little girl?” the man asks the bird, his head tilted as if trying to meet her eyes. “Your new master is named Lee Minho and he rooms in 4419. You know your way don’t you?”

The raven croaks again, and with a bat of her long black wings, she flies off. “She’ll come find you don’t worry. She imprinted herself with your sent and has memorized your face. She’ll recognize you between hundreds.”

Minho nods. When he turns his face to the tree, Bang Chan is no longer under it, his basket of daisies disappeared with the wind, just like him.

\---

Hyunjin and Felix are both with him in MAS. Seungmin having attended a couple of months last year, must have already finished this class. Minho somehow surprises himself missing him.

“Hyung! I got a seat for you!”

Minho rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t stop his infamous loving side smile to appear on his face. Felix is also there, and he simply greets him casually.

As much as he repeats to himself that Felix is only a stranger, he rationally knows that it’ll take some time to get used to his presence.

“First lesson!” The woman has high hills and a big wide smile on red lips. “Manners on table! How to hold yourself while eating and how to act when you are starving and have food in front of you!” her voice is high pitched, her enthusiasm as fake as Minho’s smile when his mother used to present him to those wrinkled horrible woman she called friends.

“Why would we ever be starving?” someone whispers behind Minho’s seat.

“Because you never know what life has planned for you Mr. Amar!” The teacher exclaims, making the student turn a dark shade of red as he mumbles an apology.

Minho mentally starts noting. _Amar in MAS class: has never experienced hunger, therefore, is not a low class. Probably a middle class but most certainly a noble._

He’ll need a notebook to note all his observations.

The professor proceeds to give them each a plate, forks, butter knives and spoons. She doesn’t teach them how to use three forks and four different knives like his instructors used to do, but rather how to be clean and respectful while eating. Minho normally wouldn’t have had a single problem following her directive, but he pretends to struggle as much as he can without being too obvious.

He can’t tell much from Felix’s actions, and he doesn’t throw a single glance toward Hyunjin, already knowing his social rank. The other students on the other hand, are not as subtle. Amar is being way too good at this, which confirms Minho’s suspicions. Shin Ryujin is glaring at the soup spoon and teaspoon as if they are an extremely complicated physic equation. Kang Daniel’s posture is too straight, and he whips his mouth too slowly, letting Minho think that he’s pretending to be a high class. Rosalyn Mae has spilled juice all over her uniform while trying to both eat and lift her drink; possibly a low class.

History of species is rather interesting, but it’s nothing Minho hadn’t already known. Still, he pretends that it’s all new information to him and spends the whole class writing what the professor was ranting about. Seungmin is in his class, and he lets him know that Changbin’s last name is Seo. The latter sits at the back of the class, and Minho can feel his eyes on his back the whole lesson.

Poetry is far more interesting, and Minho finds trouble pretending that he doesn’t know as much as he does. Though during the first hour, he concludes that anyone can have access to a book of poesy, and he gives his knowledges a bit more freedom.

His raven comes visit him during the ten minutes break before the second hour starts, pocking its peak against the window Minho is sitting by. He slides the glass open and welcomes the bird with a huge smile. Probably his first honest one in a while.

“Hi you” he whispers, running a finger in her smooth fur. “Did you have fun flying around?” The raven seems to nod and Minho chuckles. “I have some letters for you to send tomorrow. You’ll have to give them to that hag in the administration wing. You think you can do that?”

“What’s its name?” Comes a voice, making him almost jump out of his skin.

Han Jisung is standing behind him, all smile and cockiness. Minho doesn’t know why but he wants to punch him. Maybe not a real punch, just a really exasperated shove.

“Haven’t decided yet.” He reports his eyes to the bird. “I’m hesitating between illūnis and opertus.”

“Latin words.” Jisung says.

“Yeah.” Minho whispers to her to go and as he watches her leave, he mumbles. “The first means Moonless, the second defines what’s hidden, obscure and secret.” He turns around to face his classmate.

“One describes her, the other is more related to me and this whole place.”

Han Jisung doesn’t say anything, only stares at him for a long second. Minho can’t describe the look on his face. It looks empty, but somehow, not really.

When the class starts again, he takes a sit beside Minho though they don’t exchange any words.

**[CHOICE** ] 

_What Should Minho name his Raven?_

_illūnis_ vs _opertus_

The rest of the afternoon, Minho spends it in the library. He stops by the cafeteria to grab something to eat where he joins Seungmin. They don’t talk much, but it isn’t awkward. The boy is someone he finds himself comfortable around and it’s rather a weird concept to Minho because he never got close to someone this quickly.

The following hour, he roams around the castle like a ghost to get familiar with his surroundings, and when it hits 10pm, he goes back to his room.

Seungmin is already in his bed, pajamas and glasses on as he reads a book.

Minho shuffles toward his bed. He loosens his tie, and sighs in relief at the comfortable silence and stillness. He would have been damned if he had roomed with someone noisy.

He is about to change his clothes when he notices something on his nightstand.

“Seungmin, did you do this?”

“Hmm?” the younger boy throws a glance before he shakes his head and returns to his reading.

Minho feels a chill run down his spine.

There are _daisies_ on his nightstand.

**[CHOICE]** _Would you like to temporarily Switch POVs?_

_Yes_ 🌶️🌶️🌶️

 _Yes_ 🐥🦊

 _No stay with_ 🐰


	8. “Running hard without insurance On a path that does not guarantee success The pressure that carefully felt from my back I'm wearing a mask again”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poll Results : 
> 
> -?  
> 👀 50%   
> 😇 50% 
> 
> -What Should Minho name his Raven?
> 
> illūnis 89%   
> opertus 11%
> 
> \- Would you like to temporarily Switch POVs?
> 
> Yes 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 39%  
> Yes 🐥🦊 33%  
> No stay with 🐰 28%

September 8th,

“C’mon, spit it out already.”

Jisung rummages through his drawer, pouching aside his poetry textbook and his tie, whatever and whoever had brought them here. He finds it ridiculous at how quick his side of the room is already a mess. It has been a little over a week since they have arrived, and there already are rest of muffins under his bed and piece of clothes in his drawer with his school supplies. He heaves an exasperated sigh at himself and grabs his black bag from the floor. Then, he proceeds to throw in every item that he might need for the day.

“Jisung, we’re talking to you.”

He has culinary class today, so he’ll need his book of receipts. Vocal lesson won’t require anything from him other than maybe a bottle of water to clear his throat that he’ll grab on his way from the kitchen’s. At last, archery in the afternoon will ask from him every ounce of self-control.

“You know that there’s no point of ignoring us.”

It’s really not his fault that Mrs. Rose hates him. Yes, he tends to run his tongue, not do is homework, sleep during exams and be cocky, but that’s nothing different from how he acts in other classes. All his professors actually tend to like this mischievous side of him, even if they pretend not too there’s always a smile on their faces when they playfully scold him. He’s a distraction and a change to their boring classes and students, and Jisung knows that. He just doesn’t get it why she hates him that much. It’s always Han Jisung here, Han Jisung there, gnagnagna. He didn’t know she would be giving Archery this year, if he had, he wouldn’t have taken it. Really, why does she even have to-

“Is this about Lee Minho?”

Jisung stops short in his movement. His body freezes, back to the two people behind him, and he knows he won’t be able to ignore them for longer. Keeping his face as stoic as he can, he turns around.

Chan has his arms crossed against his chest. He is leaning against a drawer, staring at him with those eyes that know so much. Changbin on the other hand is in front of the door, eyebrow raised high, as if trying to prevent Jisung from running away.

“So it is about him.” Chan says, sighing heavily. He uncrosses his arms and his posture seems to deflate. “He was the one you got paired up with in the train, wasn’t he? You’ve been acting off ever since.”

“How do you know his name?” Jisung tries to play it off as indifferent but there’s stiffness in his voice. Chan simply point his chin to Changbin.

“I heard Mrs. Rose talk with him in the library on our first day here, and Chan hyung saw him in the greenhouse on our second.” Changbin frowns his eyebrows. “But that’s not the point, you know we have our eyes on everyone around. The issue is that you’ve been hiding stuff from us.”

Jisung sighs heavily. He turns around in the room he shares with Changbin, like a trapped mouse. Finally, he sits down on his bed besides the window. “We’ll miss class.” He says; his final try to avoid this conversation. Their stare responds to him, the silence settling heavy. Avoiding them, he stares at the floor.

“You know him don’t you?” Chan’s voice is gentle, calm. He knows. Oh but Chan had always known. There isn’t much Changbin nor Jisung can hide from him.

“You know him too” Jisung says, raising his eyes to them. “Both of you.”

They don’t say anything, so he continues, “When that douchebag of a dad took me with him to London. When I ran away, the person that saved me…”

He trails off, Chan and Changbin had heard the same story a thousand time each.

“It’s him?” Changbin gasps in shock, eyes wide. Chan doesn’t show much reaction. He probably had suspected it all along. “Are you sure it’s him?”

Jisung glares at him. “Of course I do. I told you, I vividly saw the symbol of his family on his carriage. I would never be able to forget his face.” He shivers, the memory is enough to make him tremble. He doesn’t need to close his eyes to feel the pressuring wind shoving his body as if he was nothing but a rag doll. He can see the horses above him, threatening to crush his bones like he was nothing but mud. He can sense the driver’s glare on him, as if he was nothing but a rat that had come in his way. As if Han Jisung is nothing. No one.

“This is great Sung! You know his financial statue and we can do research about his family’s specie. We can send off his secrets and-”

“No.” Jisung stands up, fixing his eyes to Changbin’s.

“What?” the older stutters. 

“HE SAVED MY LIFE!” Jisung shouts, eyes stinging from the cheer pain of having to recall everything. “God knows where I would be if it wasn’t for him. I would have died under the horses’ hoof if he hadn’t stopped them. Even if I had some chance, if it wasn’t for the jewelry he gave me, I probably would have become like mother and worked for _years_ to collect enough money to come back to the country!”

There’s a silence that stretches between them. The event that had occurred is still very fresh in their minds.

“Did he recognize you?” Chan asks.

Jisung shakes his head. “I looked like crap back then, there’s no way he would.”

“Did you let him know that you know him or hinted at it?”

He shakes his head again. He feels slightly guilty for lying to Chan, he had after all called Minho by his name without the older ever presenting himself, but it didn’t look like he noticed. Lee Minho must be used to everyone around him knowing his name and he probably hadn’t realized. Jisung on the other hand, maybe had wanted for him to recognize him.

“Alright, we won’t tell his secret then” Chan sighs, standing straight.

“What? He could recognize Jisung a morning while meeting in class. This is dangerous for all of us.” Changbin screeches, clearly displeased by the older’s decision.

“We own him this Bin.” Chan rests a hand on his shoulder as he is leaving the room. “He saved Jisung’s life and allowed him to come back to us. That’s all we can do to pay off our debt to him.”

He offers a smile to the two younger that looks strained. “See you two in Archery.”

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : Forest** _

_**Cr: Morgan Kinkel** _

\---

“Everyone takes a horse, a bow and a pack of arrows!” Mrs. Rose shouts at the pack of students in front of her, arms folded against her chest. “HAN JISUNG! We are not shopping just pick anything!”

Jisung doesn’t even bother to glare at her above his shoulder. With his bow and arrows behind his shoulder, he drags his horse through the crowd. “ _Jisung we’re not shopping._ ” He mimics with a high-pitched voice. “I’m sorry, took you for a stoic faceless mannequin.” He mumbles under a breath.

“I would pay to see a fight between you two.”

Besides him, a blue haired boy is grinning, a black horse securely in his hold.

A wide smile spread in Jisung’s face. He throws his arm around the younger’s neck and pulls him closer. “Yang Jeongin I would bite you if you weren’t Chan hyung’s roommate.”

Jeongin squeals and thrashes as he tries to get out of his hold. His laugh resonates in the air loudly and it eases the pressure that had settled on Jisung’s chest ever since his discussion with Chan and Changbin the same morning.

“Baby bread is delicious.” Jisung says when he finally lets him go.

Jeongin scoffs. He climbs on his horse and when he is adjusted and out of the other’s reach, he smirks. “Baby bread is poisonous.”

He takes off and Jisung is left behind breathing out a laugh. He settles on his own horse, his teal cap faintly protecting him against the chilling cold. It isn’t that late yet, but winter is approaching quickly, and the sun is running away faster.

“Ready?” Changbin’s voice asks to his right. He is on his horse on Jisung’s right side while Chan is on his left. All three of their horses are black. It’s the color the most chosen because it is discrete and harder for the animals to notice. “I always am.”

“There will be obstacles in the forest.” The teachers raise her voice to attract everyone’s attention. “All you need to do is shoot with your arrows like we had practiced in class. It won’t be evaluated; I just want you to practice on the field.” She throws her cold gaze above the crowd. “Teams of 8 to 10.”

“Baby bread!” Chan screams as the students around him start chattering. “Come over here!”

Jisung and Changbin smiles fondly as Jeongin jumps down from his horse and approaches them. The young boy had only attended about half a year two years ago, but his kindness and bright dimpled smile had managed to make its way into their hearts. Back then too, he had been Chan’s roommate.

Jeongin is not approaching them alone but has another boy by his side. “Guys, this is my older brother Felix.” 

“Nice to meet you Felix.” Chan says brightly. “Jeongin talks a lot about you.”

“Surely to complain.” Felix responds with a smile.

Jeongin doesn’t deny it, he simply smirks evilly.

“We are only 5, we need 3 more.” Changbin throws a glance above the crowd from where he still is perched on his horse.

“Ah, I might know three more people who’d like to join us.” The freckled boy turns around and waves at someone Jisung can’t see. It’s only when they approach each on their horses that he finally recognizes Hwang Hyunjin in his philosophy class, Kim Seungmin at who he shots an excited smile, and none other than Lee Minho.

Jisung notices that they all chose black horses. Must be fate, he thinks to himself.

“You chose your teams?” Mrs. Rose says, managing to quieten the crowd. “Remember their names and faces, because that’s the people you will be teamed with for the rest of the year!”

**_ [CHOICE]  _ **

_ Drop of blood  _ VS  _ 🚫 _


	9. “I don’t want to be standing And trembling in this nervous state I want to check myself I want that part of me”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Polls Result : 
> 
> Drop of blood 87%  
> 🚫 13%

Cr: lotusssx Instagram

September 25th,

22:50

The castle is deserted, Minho’s footsteps joins the ghostly silence as he walks down the dimly lit hall. The giant is whistling outside, making the windows crack and complain as they try not to succumb to the pressure. Sometimes, Minho wishes he could be a giant too, roaming around the city to search for some company. He had always been a lonely child, secluded rather than really including himself in a group of children. It wasn't like he had trouble interacting, but rather that he always felt like his chest was empty. As if it was dead. Well that was a lie, he hadn't always felt that way, but the time where he hadn't feels like it belongs to another time or dimension.

Loneliness is such a strange concept. It always accompanied Minho. It hugged him when he talked with other people, even when he was with Hyunjin. It sobbed with him when he would wake up from nightmares that are mirrors of a past that distort with reality and illusion. It put its hand against his mouth when he tried to scream for help. Today too, loneliness is holding his hand and swinging their arms back and forth as they walk down the castle. He tried to put a face to it, but all he managed to imagine is a faceless shadow clinging to him like an annoying little sibling. Sometimes, he lets himself believe that Felix has died after all, and it’s his soul that is hunting him. He deserves it after all.

A flip of wings makes his head turn to the left, toward the tall windows. A black bird is standing outside, hitting its beck against the glass.

Minho runs toward it, and within a second, he opens the windows without hesitation. The strong wind almost sends him crumbling but he remains strong on his feet. Once the raven is safely inside, he closes it back.

“Hey you.” He whispers, as if they are both hiding from someone. “You know, I picked a name for you.”

His raven croaks, resting its feet on Minho’s head. “illūnis. Your name is illūnis now. It means moonless. Do you like it?” he raises his hand to pets her black smooth fur.

illūnis squeezes, jumping in excitement.

Minho scoffs a side grin, stretching his right hand forward. “illūnis, come down here.”

The raven croaks again, and with a flip of her wings, she flies to settle on his wrist. “Good, now go to my room, and don’t fly outside, it’s cold and I fear that an incoming storm hurts you.”

Illūnis doesn’t responds. She throws one last glance toward her master before she flies down the hall to the direction Minho knows is the dorm.

He is about to follow after her when a painful whimper catches his ears. “N-no. H-help.”

Minho stays petrified for a long second. He looks around him, leaning his ear to try figure out if he really had heard correctly or if his mind is playing with him. He had stayed more than he had planned too in the library because he had to finish an essay for his history class about the war of 1700 between vampires and witches. It’s almost going to be a month since the semester has started, and honestly, besides archery that had been quite interesting, everything else fell unto monotone boredom. The last thing he had expected, was to be involved in a horror movie type of situation.

He hesitates a second more before he takes off the opposite way he was originally taking.

The more he approaches, the louder weird noises can be heard. Someone is whining and whimpering in pain, soft cries reaching his ears. There also are sounds of swallowing and something dripping unto the floor rhythmically.

Minho’s heart starts loudly beating in his heart. The stinky smell of blood makes his nose scrunches in displease, and he has the urge to turn around and run away. Nausea builds up in his guts, threatening to send his dinner all over the floor.

_Please, don’t be what I think it is. Please, oh god, please_.

He is about to turn and take another hall when he abruptly stops. The scene in front of him makes him stumble backward.

Lee Felix has someone pined against the wall. His teeth are dug on the other student’s neck as they lean there almost lifelessly barely having enough strength to stay upright. There’s blood tainting both of their clothes, dripping on the floor in a pool of red as the stranger’s neck continues to bleed. Felix’s mouth is spattered with the red substance, like a kid that had made a mess while eating.

Minho’s vision wavers. “ _No_ ” he yelps, with a weak broken voice. “ _No_ ” he sobs, stepping back.

Suddenly, he is not standing in Orenda anymore, but in another castle, in another room miles away. He is frozen in the door frame of a dimly lit salon, his feet soaked in dark colored _blood_. His father is lifelessly staring at the ceiling, with eyes that are seeing no more. With a chest that had stopped heaving air. With a heart that didn’t know how to pulse _blood_ through veins anymore. His neck is dark, as if he had been burnt. _Blood_. So much dark reddened blood. And all Minho can do is stay there and stare. Stare at the corpse of his father as he loses more _blood_ than anyone would think a single body is capable of having. _Blood_ , again and again, so much of it, crawling and moving like if it had a soul of its own. Like a snake intertwining in Minho’s legs and slithering its way up his body until its unrolled itself around his neck and squeezed to remove all trace of air.

His father’s _blood_ moves and changes until its someone else’s _blood_. His mother is laying down half on the floor and upper body on the couch, like a vulgar painting, _blood_ coming out of her mouth, and then it’s another father with a different face that is sprawled on the floor bathing in his _blood_ like the snow angels he and Felix used to make when it snowed.

The _blood_ and the corps change again, and Felix’s small body is on his bed, almost like he does before sleeping if it weren’t for the _blood_ -stained covers and face. The scenery changes again, and another mother with yet another face appears, and she is not in a dishevelled house anymore but in yet another castle, coughing _blood_ again and again.

So much _blood_ , so much, everywhere, on all the people he ever truly loved.

His stomach churns and his hands become sweaty as they tremble by his side. Minho wants to run away. He wants to turn around and run run run until his legs gives up under him and he hits the ground with so much force that he faints. He wants to faint right now and be gone. Just to forget and leave oh dear god please.

The student let escape another whine of pain and it’s enough to violently grab and throw Minho back in reality. He takes a few strides forward, grabs Felix’s shoulder and violently throw him backward.

“Are you out of your mind?” He hisses, forcing anger to replace fear.

Felix doesn’t look like he has heard him. His eyes are red, as bright at the blood under them and on his mouth. He lounges forward to attack again, and Minho does the only thing that comes to his mid.

He places his left arm between him and Felix’s blaring fangs, letting him sink his teeth in his flesh.

Minho’s face frowns in pain, but his mouth stays still. As he lets Felix fed of him, he turns toward the student, grabs their chin forces them to meet his eyes. “You’re going to forget about everything that happened tonight. Go to the infirmary, and do not try to look for who did this to you.” He waits for a couple of second, letting time for the hypnotise to slip unto the victim’s mind. “Go.”

It’s only when the student is gone that Minho turns back to the vampire chewing on his arm as if it is nothing but a tasty candy.

“You fucking fool.” He mutters.

Gently and slowly, he rests his unharmed hand on the back of Felix’s neck, and slowly drags both of them unto the floor.

Minho sighs heavily, resting his forehead on the younger’s head as he continues to gulp more and more of his blood.

They stay like that for a while, Felix’s swallowing as the only temporary silence. Minho doesn’t move, as if time had stopped. A part of him wants to stay like this forever, Felix close to him. If only he could offer him an illimited amount of his blood. “I’m sorry” he whispers. He runs his fingers in the younger’s hair. “I’m so sorry.”

It’s only when his vision starts darkening around the edges that he starts pulling away. “Let me go now.” He whispers, forcing Felix to move back his head. “Felix, that’s enough.”

The strong and steady voice is enough to pull the vampire out of his fogged mind.

Minho observes as his fangs retracts to their usual length, as his eyes clears and turns to their brownish shade, as confusion, then terror crisp his face.

“M-Minho hyung…” he looks around him, notices the blood leaking from under the older’s black sleeve, notices the one staining the floor around them like a crime scene. “W-what did I do?” Felix croaks, almost similar to the way illunis does.

“Oh you know,” Minho says, grabbing his arm and forcing both of them to stand up. “Just being a brainless bloodthirsty monster.”

Felix’s loses the colors from his face, and for a second, Minho is scared he’s going to faint. He shakes him a bit. “You could have killed that poor student. Are you even aware to what type of shit you just dragged both of us unto?”

He doesn’t wait for a response. He steps out of the hallway, looks right and left for anyone, but the hallways are deserted.

He swallows the lump in his throat, ignores the blood coating both of their clothes and starts dragging Felix down the hall.

“I-I’m so sorry.” He cries, his voice cracking and breaking like ice under one’s foot. “I am not used to this. I- I usually drink four bags a m-month, two is-it’s too little and-”

Minho stops walking and abruptly turns to face him. “And what? A good reason to throw yourself at the closest vulnerable student?”

Felix doesn’t say anything, his chest heaves repeatedly and he hiccups as he tries to hold in his sobs.

They stare unto each other’s eyes for a second more before Minho turns around and start dragging him again.

“W-where are you taking me?” Felix asks when they take the emergency stairs to the forth floor.

Minho doesn’t bother throwing him a glance.

“To hell.”

“W-what?”

“To your room dumb shit where else? You need to change and shower.” They reach the floor and Minho is about to throw the door open when Felix forces him to stop.

“B-but my roommate.”

The older turns around. There’s so much fear and terror in the vampire’s eyes. He sighs heavily. He knows he has been harsh on the other, but besides the fact that Felix really has been stupid and reckless, Minho is as much, if not more, terrorized than him. If he stops moving, he is scared he won’t ever be able to flinch a single finger for the next hours.

Pulling down his sleeve, he rests a hand on the back of Felix’s head and use the other to whip the blood out of the younger’s face.

“Hyung, you’re shaking.”

Minho hums, focusing on his task. “I have hemophobia.” He whispers. “It’s a fear of blood.” He scoffs a humourless laugh. “I’m actually this close to fainting.”

Before Felix can say anything, he turns around and open the door. “Stay here. I’m going to distract Hyunjin away from his room. As soon as he leaves, take the chance to shower and change. Put some parfum, you stink blood. Vampires and Werewolf might smell it.”

Steeping out of the staircase, Minho almost runs to Hyunjin’s and Felix’s shared room. He stops for a moment when he is standing in front of it, weakly trying to not look breathless. His shirt is black, so he doesn’t have to worry about the blood tainting it.

“Minho hyung?” Hyunjin opens the door, eyebrow’s frowned. For a second, Minho is scared that he looks as horrible as he feels. “It’s past the curfew what are you doing here?”

“Is it?” Minho forces a smile. “Hadn’t noticed. Can I talk with you for a second?”

Hyunjin observes his expression before he nods. “Yeah sure.”

He opens his door wider, but Minho doesn’t move. “In the hall.”

Once the younger witch has stepped out of his room, they start walking side by side. “You have been avoiding me lately.”

It’s not a question, and they both know it. “I just have been busy with work. Nothing much.”

Minho notices the stain in his smile. He wonders if Hyunjin can read him as easily as he can. “Have I said anything that upset you?”

From the corner of his eyes, he can see Felix enter his bedroom. Hyunjin is too absorbed in the conversation and into the accusations that are being thrown at him to notice or really care. “Nothing’s wrong.”

Minho nods. “Ok.” He walks back to his own room, leaving him behind.

Without another exchanged word, he opens the door and enters his shared space.

His clothes are sticking to his skin and the smell makes him want to throw it all up. Adrenaline washes off his body, and suddenly his legs forget how to hold him up and his lungs become allergic to air. Someone is trying to reach him beyond the fog that is blinding his mind, but he can’t do anything. He feels disgusting, as if he had thrown himself in a pool of mud. His throat starts gagging, and vomit climbs back up to his mouth.

“Oh shit.” Seungmin’s voice says. He forces Minho to stand on his feet and guides him to the bathroom.

Minho closes his eyes as he throws up. His throat itches uncomfortably as food come to find their last destination on the sink. The smell and the sensation make him gag more, and it almost feel like he’ll continue throwing up for the rest of his life.  
  
“You’re okey.” Seungmin murmurs, rubbing his back and holding him up from his shoulders to support his weight. “Let it out.”

It’s only when he doesn’t feel food obstructing his throat that he stops. He brings water to his mouth with shaking hands, and although he is sure it must be disgusting for Seungmin, he still helps him clean up with whipping his faceclean with water.

“D-Drink.” Minho cracks, feeling the acidity of the leftover in his mouth.

Seungmin nods, gently and slowly lowers him to the ground, and leaves the bathroom attached to their room.

Minho rests his back against the wall behind him. There are tears running down his cheeks. It’s not like throwing up hurts that much or is necessarily painful, uncomfortable and disgusting sure, but not enough to make him cry. Yet, every single time, tears come rushing down his cheeks as a congratulation gift or maybe to wash away the pain.

“Here.”

Seungmin reappears with a water bottle, and Minho gulps down some of it.

He is about to give it back and mumble a thanks when they both freezes. Seungmin’s hands are tainted in red. In Minho’s blood.

“Shit.” He mutters, closing his eyes.

“W-what’s this?” Seungmin looks up with wide eyes. “Are you hurt? What happened?” He looks at Minho, and when he notices his soaked sleeve, he slowly lifts it.

Minho doesn’t look. He can’t.

Seungmin gasps.

There’s two holes on the older’s arm, blood pouring out of them like a broken faucet.

“Who did this to you?”

** [CHOICE]  **

_ What should Minho answer? _

_Didn't see their face_ vs _I fell_

Seungmin nods. His face is carefully stern, and Minho can’t tell if he believes him or not.

“We need to go to the infirmary.”

Minho shakes his head, eyes closed. Tiredness distort his mind. “No.” His voice sounds pathetic to his own ears. “I take first aid class remember? The wound’s okey, it’ll heal just fine.” He says through a slogged mouth.

Seungmin moves back, opens a drawer under the sink and pulls out a small white first aid box. He proceeds to clean the wound. Minho doesn’t utter a sound even when alcohol is poured on his arm. He deserves everything that’s happening to him. 

_** UNLOCKED LOCATION : Main hall, morning ** _

_** ** _

Minho is woken up the next morning by illūnis pocking her beak unto his face.

To his surprise, he slept through his first period, and he hadn’t even heard Seungmin waking up nor getting ready in the morning.

With a heavy sigh and aching muscles, he pushes himself off his bed.

A quick glance to his watch informs him thatit’s 9:45am. Great news, his second cass is at 10am.

He takes a quick shower to remove any remaining smell from last night’s events, changes unto a new uniform, throws something in his bag, and leaves the room.

“You look like a zombie.” Changbin mutters when he meets him in the main hall leading to the cafeteria.

“Great, cuz I feel like one.” Minho mutters.

Him and Changbin had started conversing in archery class when they found themselves in a team together. They also share history class, and words flood between them easier each passing class.

Talking with Changbin is easy. He doesn’t ask intrusive questions and much to Minho’s surprise, he has quite a warm and appeasing smile.

Minho throws him a side smirk the moment they enter the cafeteria. “And from how hungry I am, I might eat your brain.”

Changbin glares at him in disgust and doesn’t remove his eyes even when the other explodes in laughter and walks away to grab a handful of brownies.

They are about to exit the cafeteria when they come face to face with Jeongin and Felix.

Both boys lose colors, fixing Minho with such terrified eyes as if he held a gun to their face.

To be fair, Felix will probably be expulsed and pursued with multiple charges if Minho decides to open his mouth about what happened last night. He had hypnotized the victim unto forgetting, so really Felix’s fate rests in Minho’s hands.

“Felix! I was looking for you, can I talk with you for a second?”

“S-sure.” Felix responds, with a smile contrasting Minho’s easily faked one.

They leave Changbin and Jeongin behind and take the east side hall.

_** UNLOCKED LOCATION : East Abandoned Building ** _

_** ** _

Minho doesn’t talk. He doesn’t exchange a single glance with Felix until they reach a secluded side of the castle. Lights is pouring on the walls and ground, the building looking much older than any other part of Orenda. He had once gotten lost here while getting to one of his classes, and Changbin had let him know during a very boring history lesson, that it is abandoned because of the high risk of the ceiling collapsing above their heads.

“Take this.” Minho says, pulling a blood bag out of his bag.

Felix stares at it with wide eyes, frozen in place.

“You’re planning on letting me hold this for anyone to see for long?” Minho asks with an annoyed tone.

The young vampire snatches it from his hands, hiding it within his own things. “H-how? Are you-”

Minho raises an eyebrow, wrapping his arms protectively against his chest. “No, I’m not a vampire, but compared to you, I can use my brain.” He pushes his chest with his finger.

“Stole it from the kitchens. There’s a storage room down there. Maybe that’s what you should have done instead of, you know, jumping an innocent student.”

Felix doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t wait for him to do so. Turning around, with his heart thundering in his ears, he walks away.

**[CHOICE]**

_Would you like to switch POVs?_

_Yes 🐥🦊_

_No 🐰_


	10. “If I can live for you, I can do anything If you can shine brighter, I can be the darkness”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Polls Result : 
> 
> \- What should Minho answer?
> 
> Didn't see their face 100%  
> I fell 0% 
> 
> \- Would you like to switch POVs?
> 
> Yes 🐥🦊 100%  
> No 🐰 0%

_September 31th,_

“Stop glaring at him you’re going to murder him with your gaze alone.”

The leaves are whining under their feet, wind blowing above their heads and tall trees trapping them within the forest.

Felix throws a glance to his brother, diverting his eyes from Minho.

“If anyone would kill the other, it’s him.”

Jeongin shrugs, a smile tugging his lips. “You were the one hurt him.”

“Say it louder, I’m sure all these supernatural creatures with their supernatural hearing didn’t hear you.” Felix sarcastically gestures to the 6 people walking ahead of them.

“We heard it!” Chan shouts from ahead the group, a grin on his face.

“Group project be damned.” Felix mumbles, stretching his bow and sending the arrow right to its target.

He can’t help sending another glance toward Minho. His mind had been torturing him ever since that night. Why had Minho helped him? Why had he let him almost suck his blood dry without a protest until he was about to faint? Why had he gone to such length and put himself in danger to protect someone else’s secret that would benefit him? Maybe he had protected him so that just he would be the one sending in Felix’s secret. Yet, if that was the case, why would Minho steal that blood bag and give it to him?

A target appears to his right side and without hesitating, Felix stretches his bow again and shoot.

Again and again and again, just to get his mind to shut up.

“I just don’t get it!” Jisung shouts, hitting a target. “Last day of the month is supposed to be devoid of any class.” He stumbles his feet on the ground below him, like a child throwing a tantrum. “Why would that joke of a teacher give us class! An expedition in the forest at that!”

Changbin throws an arrow who pass dangerously close Minho’s head. “Maybe it’s because she hates Minho Hyung.”

Minho glares at him before locking Changbin’s head under his arm and ruffle his hair. Changbin shouts multiple strident _‘ouch ouch OUCH’_ but everyone ignores his plea of help.

“We hit 35 targets. I think we’re good to go.” Hyunjin says, counting the targets gathered in his hands.

Chan, their unspoken leader, nods and gestures to the bridge in front of them. “We can go this way; it’ll lead us directly to the castle.”

Surprisingly, Felix wonders, Chan knows the forest better than the teacher herself. It’s almost as if he had spent several hours roaming in it.

They start crossing the bridge, almost all eight of them looking close to exhaustion. Mrs. Rose had really pushed their limits.

Jisung is walking close to Chan and Seungmin, jumping in excitement as he turns to face the back of the group; “I can’t wait to eat pudding-”

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, everything happens too fast. A piece of wood under Jisung’s foot breaks, sending his body falling through the hole.

Chan and Changbin screams the younger’s name, utter terror haunting their faces.

But Jisung is too far away. The bridge is trembling and unsteady. The river below their feet is miles away, cheering to take a life with it.

Everything happens too fast. Death appears in front of their faces in the blink of an eye, between a laugh and the shrug of shoulders.

Though Jisung doesn’t fall. His whole body is intertwined in leaves, branches and roots, trapping him in place above the void. His eyes are wide open, like if he had been caught cheating during a test.

Felix turns his head slowly to the side. Seungmin’s hands are outstretched toward Jisung. His skin is glowing, and his face is frozen in concentration, sweat adoring his forehead. The shocked terrorized silence is heavy, as if the whole forest had held its breath.

Slowly, Seungmin moves his hand, and with him, every single thing that’s holding Jisung follows his commend. The branches extend further, and the roots secure their grip along the younger’s legs. Seungmin lowers two of his fingers, directing Jisung’s body in safety, to the other side of the bridge.

“Surprise I guess.” Seungmin casually says when all eyes turn to his. He shrugs, hiding his hands in his cape and avoiding eyes contact.

Changbin starts running toward Jisung, and with that, the spell breaks. Chan follows after him, enveloping both of them unto a suffocating hug as they make a weird pile on the ground.

“I bet my Americano that he’s an Elf.” Minho murmurs to Hyunjin.

“I bet my sushis that he’s a Fae.” Hyunjin responds in the same tone, high fiving the older witch to seal the deal.

“T-Thank you.” Jisung stutters when Seungmin has reached them. He looks like he has so much to say. “T-Thank you so much.”

Seungmin shrugs.

Felix’s chest bloom in warmness for the other. He has exposed his secret in a heartbeat to save Jisung.

“Just help me with my guitar assignment.”

-

“So what do you think he is?” Felix asks when they are back in the castle, side by side slowly walking toward the cafeteria.

“Seungmin?” Jeongin glances around him, making sure the hall is devoid of any prying ear. “Either a Fae or an Elf.” He presses his lips unto a thin line, thinking. “Besides the wings, Elves’ magic can either be dark or light while fae’s only have light magic.”

“You couldn’t really tell if he used light or dark magic though.” Felix stares down at his shoes, as if they were going to tell him the answer. “Both species can communicate with nature.”

“Not exactly.” IN glances at his brother, a smirk on his lips. “Fae communicates with nature. Elve control it. Seungmin didn’t look like he was having a chit chat with the roots when he made them grab Jisung.”

Felix scoffs a laugh. “You think he’s-”

Cr: lotusssx Instagram

**[CHOICE]**

_What specie is Seungmin?_

_Elf_ vs _Fae_

“Yes.” Jeongin stops walking and turns toward his older brother. “Seungmin aside, what are you going to do about Minho?”

Felix sighs heavily, starting to walk ahead. “I told you already, I’m not going to tryto discoverhis specie. That would be an ungrateful thank you gift after what he has done for me.”

“Lix.” Jeongin puts a gentle hand on his elbow, making him stop. His eyes are full of compassion that Felix can’t bear meeting. “Do you think it’s him?”

Felix doesn’t answer. He fixes his gaze unto the younger, eyes shaking, as if he could find the answer in them. “I don’t know.”

“But he _protected_ you. When he discovered my specie, he sold me out.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I _do_.” Jeongin insists, his eyes strangely pleading. “And you’ll see tomorrow.” 

Felix doesn’t respond. His chest is tightening, and his heart is beating in his ears. He looks away, but he can feel Jeongin searching to meet his eyes.

“What will you do if it’s really him?”

Felix doesn’t answer. He came to Orenda to find him. That’s the words he had written in his third secret: _find his long-lost brother._

There’s a thousand of worries roaring inside his brain like bees. What if he doesn’t recognize nor remember him? What if he doesn’t give a single care about Felix? What if he hates him? What if he doesn’t want anything to do with him or worse, what if he hates him? Why did he leave without a goodbye all these years ago without a single glance back?

_What if Felix can’t forgive him?_

**_[CHOICE]_ **

🚶‍♂️ vs _Standing_

POV SWITCH: Lee Minho

Minho wakes up with electricity running through his veins.

October 1st. _Finally_.

“Seungminie, if you don’t get out of the bed in the next five minutes, I’m dragging your body off of it.” He grabs his bag, fixing his hair in the mirror. “And you’re not going to like it.”

Seungmin complains, but he eventually gets ready. They both wake up fairly early, so thankfully it is not such a task.

Minho has to stop himself from running down the hall. Did any Londonien recognize him? How many points did he collect? What does it look like to have everyone’s secret hung in the mail hall?

“Excited?” Chan grins, appearing by his side with Jisung and Changbin bickering about some leftovers they sneaked in their shared room. Jeongin is clinging to Chan’s arm for support, looking half asleep.

“Thrilled.” Minho corrects. “Where’s Felix?” He asks before he can stop himself.

Jeongin lifts his head, opening his eyes slightly wider. “Went ahead with Hyunjin.”

There’s a weird glint in his voice and in the look he sends him.

They are about to turn the corner that leads them to the main hall when Seungmin stops him. “Can we talk for a second?”

Minho nods, observing the others walk away.

“A few weeks ago, you forgot a parchment on your desk.” Seungmin stares at him right in the eyes. “You had written on it some secrets about the other students.”

Minho frowns his eyebrows. Seungmin continues before he has the chance to say anything. “Look, I didn’t copy the secrets you found, but I won’t hesitate next time.”

He attempts a smile. “Don’t be this reckless again Hyung. You never know the prying eyes and ears around here.” 

With that, he walks away.

The daisies left on his nightstand crosses Minho’s mind.

—

The main hall is crowded and loud.

Minho’s eyes immediately land on Hyunjin in the center, shouting at a staff that looks annoyed.

“IT’S IMPOSSIBLE! THERE MUST BE A MISTAKE!” he gestures toward a parchment behind him. “LEE MINHO IS A WITCH! I’M TELLING YOU! THERE MUST BE A MISTAKE, I SENT IT A MONTH AGO!”

Minho’s blood freezes in his veins. He can’t trust his own ears.

_Would Hyunjin really dare?_

Slowly, with steps that feels too heavy, Minho walks past Hyunjin, effectively shutting him.

The parchment behind him has his name on it. With bold black ink is written:

_Lee Minho._

_7points._

_Noble. Sole heir of the Lee family. London._

_Secret discovered by: Hwang Hyunjin._

Minho wants to laugh. He scoffs, disbelieve shaking his chest.

He turns around in a swing of heels and start clapping.

The silence in the main hall immediately falls. He can feel the crowd’s eyes on the both of them. Hyunjin is not looking at him, glaring at the floor.

“Congratulations Hwang Hyunjin. Stabbing me in the back! Bet you didn’t expect that I am not a witch did you?”

Hyunjin shouts his eyes up, anger flaming his whole posture. “This had nothing to do with betrayal! This is a competition for god’s sake!” He takes a step forward. “I know you’re a witch. I’ve seen you use magic for the past decade. Wherever trick you used t-”

“A competition?” Minho cuts him, crossing the distance between them. He raises one eyebrow. “So this has nothing to do with the fact that I didn’t choose you as my roommate?”

Hyunjin looks away, and Minho recognizes the shame in his eyes. 

“Witchcraft is all about chemistry. Can you confidently say that you ever saw me use magic?”

Hyunjin doesn’t respond, and it’s only manages to send Minho’s nerves aflame. His eyes tear up from frustration.

Taking a few steps away, he inhales a deep shivering breath before he turns around.

“What did you think? You’ll sends in my specie and social rank, and expect to discover my third secret within the next month?” The silence is heavy, and it weight on his shoulders. He can almost taste everyone’s judging eyes on him.

“I know what you think my third secret is Hyunjin. Let me save you some time.” Minho says above a breath. “I DID NOT KILL MY PARENTS.”

The first tear rolls down his cheek, and it almost look foreign on his stone-cold expression.

Hyunjin’s face shoots up to him. He looks shocked, almost regretful.

“I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR EITHER OF THEIR DEATHS.”

Minho’s heart feels like bursting. His vision is shaking, as if a single step would send him tumbling on the ground. He takes a step toward Hyunjin’s terrorized face and pushes him with a finger. Whispering, he says; “You think I don’t know what is being said about you behind closed doors and in underground kitchens? You think I don’t know what happened the day of your birth?”

Hyunjin’s face goes livid. He looks like he is about to faint. “I can send you back home in a heartbeat. Do _not_ play this game with me.”Minho threatenes.

“You wouldn’t do that.” Hyunjin croaks, tears on the edge of his eyelids.

“It’s just a competition isn’t it? Your words, not mine.” 

Minho takes a step back. Carefully keeping his voice down, he murmurs between parted lips.

“Who really are you Hwang Hyunjin? I’m not the only one who lied. Look at you, everything about your life is a lie. Even your name.”

He watches in an evil and sick pleasure as Hyunjin’s face falls apart. He wants him to be hurt. Wants his words to sting and ache like a wound washed by alcohol.

Minho turns around. His eyes meet Felix’s and Chan’s for the split of a second before he walks away.

He has a weird certitude that if he throws a glance above his shoulder, he’ll find his heart left on the ground for everyone to step on.

**[CHOICE]**

_Who will chase after Minho?_

_Felix_ vs _Chan_


	11. RESULTS OF SEPTEMBER

Bang Chan’s points : 50

Seo Changbin points : 45

Han Jisung’s points : 43

Hwang Hyunjin’s points : 5

Lee Felix’s points : 23


	12. “I found no cure for the loneliness  I found no cure for the sickness Nothing here feels like home Crowded streets, but I’m all alone Someone take me home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Polls Result : 
> 
> \- What specie is Seungmin?
> 
> Elf 74%  
> Fae 26% 
> 
> -?  
> 🚶♂️73%  
> Standing 27%
> 
> \- Who will chase after Minho?
> 
> Felix 68%  
> Chan 32%

_** UNLOCKED LOCATION : Orenda’s highest tower ** _

_** ** _

Minho, for considering himself as a pathetic coward, did the only thing he could possibly do without suffocating under other's judging gaze; he ran and hide on the tallest tower. He climbed the hundred stairs to the top platform, where a circled open space gave an open view on the world bellow. 

He sat on the railing, feet dangling in the air above the void.

He liked the fear that bloomed in his chest, craved for the danger that it procured him. He used to quiver and tremble from anything that scared him but now, he seeks for it. He wants that familiar feeling to tighten his chest and dig itself in his heart. He cuddles the thought that he is the one who has the power on his life.

Pushing himself to the limits of his phobia is not something he entertains every so often, but he looms dangerously close to edge when he thinks that he deserves it. He shouldn’t have screamed at Hyunjin like that. The poor boy didn’t deserve it. The younger was right, after all it was only a competition, Minho hadn’t really expected him to keep quiet. Yet, the way he had yelled Minho’s lies to the whole world to hear, the way he was mutely believing that Minho had killed the only two people in his life that really cared about him, had set him off. Like a security alarm, his body had attacked to protect itself.

Minho understands why Hyunjin thinks he killed his parents. He gets it. The entirety of London is convinced he had planned their murder to take their wealth quicker as he is their only heir. Rumors had started spreading that he had been adopted despite Minho’s entire life navigating around the lies carefully sewed to keep that truth away. His mom had suddenly fallen ill and passed away in a few days in the middle of the night. His father had been murdered and found dead by his own son. He understood, really, why everyone had pointed a finger at him behind his back and called him a murderer. Still, it hurt that his only and closest friend thought the same.

Felix had been there, had heard everything, and Minho’s heart aches and sinks for having been so humiliated in front of him.

Minho stays there for hours; time forgotten in the myriad of thoughts and guilts.

“You used to be scared of heights.” Felix’s voice says softly, approaching and sitting beside him on the railing.

Minho doesn’t look at him. Doesn’t startle in surprise; he had heard his footsteps, his nervous heartbeats.

His heart sinks at the meaning of Felix’s words.

_Felixknows._

Minho risks a glance toward him, but when his eyes has settled on his freckles bathing under the sunset, he can’t look away.

“I still do.” He murmurs. “I grew familiar to the fear. It’s the only think that stayed constant throughout my life.”

There’s a silence that stretches between them like melting cheese that never seem to neither break nor end.

Finally, Felix speaks; “It’s you Hyung right?” he cast on him a glare so full of despair and anger that makes Minho wants to cower like a kicked puppy.

He shakes his head, tears blooming in his eyes with such force that for a moment, he is blinded to the world. “I’m not your brother Felix” A single lone tear runs down his right cheek. “Jeongin is. I’m just someone who used to have the same parents as yours.” He looks away, staring down at his feet. Would a push of wind ever be strong enough to send him flying toward the ground? “I never whipped your tears. Never laughed with you. Never protected you. Never gave you an advice nor helped you with a homework. I never bought you a birthday gift, never cooked a warm meal for you.” He whips at his eyes, sniffles and dryly chuckles when he turns his head to the side. Felix isn’t looking at him, letting his tears run down like a leaking sink. “If I ever did any of those things when I was no older than six, they got buried under the trauma we were unlucky to share.”

Felix scoffs, seeming at a loss of words before he flicks his legs to the safe side and properly turns to face Minho. “How can you say those things?” he says indignantly. “Can you even begin to imagine how long I’ve been looking for you?”

“You’ve been looking for a ghost.” Minho responds, tone flat. “Why have you been chasing the past for a family that is no more when you have one right beside you? Jeongin is the best version of a brother then I’ll ever be.”

“I don’t _want_ the best fucking perfect brother.” Felix raises his voice, forcing Minho to turn and face him. “I want _you_. I want my blood related brother.” He raises his hands before bringing them back down. “And yeah Jeongin is an amazing sibling, but it doesn’t change the fact that I want _you_ by my side.”

Minho doesn’t say anything. What could he say really? That Felix having Minho back in his life would be a curse more than anything else? He wouldn’t believe him anyway.

“Have you- Have you ever looked for me? Have you ever wondered where I was? Have you ever wanted to find me?” Felix’s voice cracks, breaks like shattered class. Minho wishes he could stop his head from turning to face him. Wishes his eyes would go blind just so he wouldn’t witness the utter pain hunting his brother’s face at each passing silent second.

“I-” Minho looks away. “I wouldn’t want anyone to live the life I had.”

“What life? Living in a fucking castle with low tier like me brushing your dirtied shoes and putting food in your mouth?” Felix is angry, his voice raising aflame like fire. “Did you THAT MUCH want to forget me? Did you wish that desperately to erase me form your life and pretend that you never felt the twist of starve in your guts? Is that why you pretended that you didn’t recognize me and lied your whole fucking life about your race? What did Hyunjin say? A fucking witch?” Felix raises to his feet, each shout and poisoned word hitting Minho’s chest with a satisfying ache. He deserved it. He deserved every bullet Felix is shooting at him.

“They made me do it.” Minho mumbles, looking at the ground.

“What?”

“THEY MADE ME DO IT!” He screams, turning around and standing up. “They made me pretend to be a witch! STARVED ME FOR MONTHS! As if I could stop being a vampire just like that.” He rubs his face in his hands before he raises his eyes back to Felix. “They cultivated my trauma and fear of blood like one would with vegetables in a farm! Made me hate and despise the monster that I am. Made me DREAD the next time I would be allowed to feed because of how terrorized I am of that red liquid that makes me see our parent’s dead bodies and _yours over and over again_. Drowned me in lies of witches and witchcraft. Do you realize how much pressure there is to spend twenty years of your life being terrorized of anyone finding out who you really are? That you are nothing but a scam? Of being thrown in the streets because you had no fucking use anymore?” he lowers his voice, his head tilting, examining Felix’s pained face. “Is that the life you wanted me to bring you unto?”

Minho’s eyes dwell in tears yet again, and he looks away toward the blanket of darkness that had enveloped the sky. “I’M SORRY OK? For lying. For living well. For trying to forget. For being greedy of things I do not deserve. For not looking for you. For pretending to be what I’m not. Above all, I’m sorry for not regretting any of those decisions.”

**UNLOCKED CLUE N•3**

[#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click)

There’s a silence. It’s heavy and suffocating, and Minho considers cuddling the pieces of his broken heart in his palms and running away.

But then, Felix’s says words that makes Minho’s eyes goes wide in stupor. “Can I hug you?”

Minho nods before he can think about it. Tears spill down on his cheeks as Felix wraps his arms around his neck and brings him close.

Pathetically, he sobs. Quietly, as if scared anyone could hear and scold him. Used to carefully shape his cries so that they would never be louder than the whimper of a little wounded baby bird. Felix tightens his hold on him, brings him closer as if he could hide him inside his chest. Carefully, he whispers, not really expecting his older brother to respond.

“The blood bag you gave me, you didn’t steal it, did you? That was another lie.” He gulps, his own tears mutely cascading. “It was yours. It was your portion.” Felix whimpers, a sob scratching his throat. “I attacked a student because I couldn’t control my hunger after drinking two blood bags. You gave me one of yours and even let me feed of you.” He whispers, horror suddenly making his inside twist.

Minho takes a step back, but he is taken with dizziness. Running on a single blood bag for a whole month, having his blood sucked, not eating the whole day and having to deal with so much emotions suddenly becomes too much. He wants to lay down on the cold stoned ground and sleep. Felix holds him with a steady grip before he can crumble.

“Hyung, are you okey? Did you drink your blood? They got refiled today.” At his worried tone, Minho simply shakes his head. He brings both of them to sit on the ground, unable to stay upright.

“I know you have plenty of questions. Ask away.” Minho says, back against the wall and paining to keep his eyes open.

Felix hesitates for a second. “I was too young to remember, and no one wants to tell me. What really happened that night?”

Minho sighs. He reaches slowly and hold Felix’s hand, leaning forward. “Father had enemies. Bad people he owned a lot of money too. One night, they attacked us.” He looks down at their intertwined fingers, the images playing behind his eyes. “We were both asleep, but you know I had always been a light sleeper. I watched them die from the crack of our bedroom door.” Felix tightens his hold on his hands and Minho can feel tears falling on his skin. He doesn’t know if they are his or Felix’s. “They were killed in the bat of an eye, not even having the time to utter a scream.”

Minho closes his eyes. He remembers their frozen shocked face. Remembers the way their body fell on the ground as if they were puppet dolls all along whose strings that held them up and moving got cut off. He can still see and smell the stinky blood escaping from their bodies as if that’s all it had been wanting to do.

“Their murderer then entered our room. He put a finger in front of his lips as he walked past me and all I could do was stupidly stand there frozen and mute.” Felix lifts his chin with a gentle finger, and Minho’s ghost eyes finds back some sparkles. “He went toward your bed as you kept sleeping, unaware that our world had fallen apart. That your life nor you will ever be the same again when you will open those eyelids of yours.” 

Felix gently grabs Minho’s back neck and direct it to his shoulder. Minho doesn’t fight it, pressing his forehead against his shoulder blade, and in that moment, it was the only thing keeping him whole. “He bit you on the neck, gently, as if he was kissing you goodnight like dad used to do to tickle us. Your small chest spasmed, and just like that, the human Lee Felix was forever gone.” He recoils back and sighs. “He bit me after you and I didn’t fight it.”

There’s a silence before Felix dare speak again. “I remember the pain and hunger when we lived in that orphanage. One day you were there and the next sunrise you were gone.” He settles his eyes unto his older brother’s. “I wanted to find you. I wanted to flip the world over just to find you. I begged every night that you would still be alive so I could be angry at you for abandoning me all those years.”

**UNLOCKED CLUE N•2**

**[#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click) **

****

Minho shakes his head and it darkens the edges of his vision. “I didn’t want to leave you Lix. We were new turned vampires. Children. The orphanage didn’t know what to do with us and we kept swimming between unconsciousness and illusions, _starving_. Then the Lee came, choose me only because we had the same last name and I had tried to bite their neck.” He searches for Felix’s eyes, trying to make him understand all the honestly he could possible muster. “I was delirious, I hadn’t realized what was happening to me. When I got properly feed and gained back some lucidity, it was already too late; they had taken me to another country.”

For a while, no one says anything. They keep staring unto each other with hungry eyes, wanting to take every detail in; the freckles on Felix’s face, the softness of Minho’s eyes, the warmness of their intertwined hands. They laugh barely above a whisper from time to time, for no particular reason, and somehow, it’s enough. ‘ _He’s here. He’s finally here. This is my brother. My only blood related family.’_ Each of their brain supplies to their eyes that can’t really believe that it’s finally happening.

Felix is playing with Minho’s fingers, something he used to do when he woke up too early before anyone else and he didn’t want to get out of bed just yet.

“How were they? The people that adopted you.” He finally asks.

“Mother always treated me nicely, like one would with a pricey carefully molded doll. She made me unto everything she wanted, and I found great satisfaction in being the perfect image of the son she never had. She fell sick half a year ago, suddenly with an unknown illness. She passed away quickly, in matter of days. Her death tore a piece of me.” He lifts his head and smiles sadly to his brother. “Father is another story. He has always been harsh, distant, cold. He slapped me more times than he met my eyes. But all dads are like that aren’t they?”

Felix nods with a forced smile. A tear runs down his cheek. He doesn’t have the strength to tell Minho that no, all fathers do not hurt their children.

“After mother’s death, he became worse. He kept shouting about how I wasn’t his son. How I had no right to steal his fortune and everything he had worked for. How he was going to find a way to get me out of his life.” Minho takes in a deep breath and looks down at their hands. “His death traumatized me more than it saddened me. I found him in a pool of his blood, and it made my phobia even worse. A last gift he gave me. Still, I loved him. He was my father.”

He lifts his head and squeezes Felix’s hands. “How about you?”

“Oh they are nice people.” Felix tries to keep it short, uncapable of bragging about his amazingly caring adoptive parents when Minho had gone through so much. “They took great care of me.”

He stands up, holding out a hand toward Minho. “We can talk more tomorrow. Now that we’ve found each other, we have the rest of our lives to chat.”

Minho smiles back and accept his help. Once he is up on his feet, his vision darkens and his world tilts on its axis. Felix holds him upright until he can put one foot in front of the other.

“Hyung, you need to drink your blood bag as soon as we get back alright?”

“Yeah” he responds, strained and panting.

They climb down the stairs, and Felix doesn’t let go of his arm all the way back to their dorm.

“I kept some food for you when you didn’t show up to lunch and in none of your classes. Eat it before sleeping alright?”

Minho nods again, letting Felix drags him down the halls and up the stairs.

They are standing a few feet from their bedrooms when they abruptly stop in the scene that unfolds in front of them.

Hyunjin is holding Seungmin’s arm in a firm grip as the later tries to get him off. 3racha are standing close to them, eyebrows frowned in confusion and worry while Jeongin screams at the rest of the students to go back to their rooms.

“LET ME GO! GET OFF!” Seungmin screams in a hysterical voice. “I NEED TO TELL HIM!” His voice shakes in despair. “IT’S HIS RIGHT TO KNOW! LET ME GO!”

“What’s going on?” Minho asks, and surprisingly, Seungmin stops.

Hyunjin’s hand slip in shock, and Seungmin takes the opportunity to free himself.

He is crying, and his eyes are bloodshot. “I’m sorry.” He sobs, walking toward Minho. “I’m _so_ sorry. I- I didn’t know he was your father.”

Seungmin falls to his knees in front of the older.

Minho takes a few steps back, dizziness engulfing his mind in a fogged world. “ _No_ ” his hands are trembling. “ _No._ ”

“I- I was in that room by acc-accident and I-I heard his conversation. He-” A sob obstruct Seungmin’s words, and it’s almost hard to hear him. “He-he noticed me and put a knife under my throat and I-I-”

Minho fervently shakes his head. His face morphing in pain. “No. No don’t say it. No. Shut up _no_.” Is all he manages to mumble, and for a second, it feels like he is six years old again, watching his parents and younger brother being killed incapable to move an inch. Merciless. _Weak_.

Space and time had disappeared, leaving only him and Seungmin kneeling at his feet crying and sobbing.

  
“I- I didn’t want to do it.” Seungmin begs. “I couldn’t control my magic I swear I-”

Minho presses his palms on his ears, he gives his back to the words stabbing his chest repeatedly. He doesn’t want to hear it. No. No. He doesn’t want to know. _No._

It’s as if the whole world had held its breath.

“His blood is tattooed on my hands. I killed your father. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

** UNLOCKED CLUE N•7  **

[#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click)

** [CHOICE] **

_ In the second half of next chapter, whose POV would you like to switch to? _

_ Kim Seungmin  _ vs _ Hwang Hyunjin  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be out next week!


	13. I'd rather be a lover than a fighter 'Cause all my life, I've been fighting Never felt a feeling of comfort, oh And all this time, I've been hiding And I never had someone to call my own, oh nah I'm so used to sharing Love only left me alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RESULTS: 
> 
> [CHOICE] 
> 
> In the second half of next chapter, whose POV would you like to switch to?
> 
> Kim Seungmin 75%  
> Hwang Hyunjin 25%

Chan acts before he can think against it.

As if moved by instinct, he lounges forward to catch Minho’s body. The weight is sudden and unexpected, and even Chan’s super strength can’t prevent both of them to heave on the floor.

Minho doesn’t faint. Doesn’t scream. Doesn’t cry. He stays unmoving in Chan’s arms, frozen, as if he had been trapped in time. Chan slides his arms under his and rests his right hand on the younger’s back to support his weight.

“Minho? Minho?” He gently taps his cheek, but he doesn’t get any answer. Minho keeps staring straight ahead, as if he is seeing throughout Seungmin who’s sobbing on the floor.

Chan throws a glance at the situation. Hyunjin is kneeling beside Seungmin, a comforting hesitant hand on his back. Felix face is painted in a shocked horror. Jeongin has finished chasing the still lingering curious students back to their rooms; it’s already past the curfew. Jisung is watching Minho closely in concern, and Chan can tell that he wants to reach and help but is stopping himself. He turns his eyes to Changbin and starts howling orders.

“Changbin, help him bring him to my room.”

Changbin jumps unto action. An arm around Minho’s, he and Chan hist him unto his feet.

While they quickly walk past Seungmin, Chan continues to shout orders, as if that’s the only thing he has been doing his whole life. “Jeongin, you’re going to room with Felix.” His roommate nods fervently. “Hyunjin, with Seungmin.”

They reach his room just as Felix opens it for the trio.

Him and Changbin carefully lowers Minho unto the bed where he obediently sits.

Chan turns around, facing six pairs of worried eyes. “Everyone back to their rooms.”

“But-”

“No buts.” He cuts Jisung. “Do I need to remind you where we are? We’re going to be in big fucking trouble if we’re found in this state past curfew. Students and professors alike will ask _questions_. That’s the last thing we need nor want.” He casts on them a heavy look. “Now go try sleep if your mind allows it. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Slowly, one by one, they shuffle away, reassured by the use of _‘We’._ It’s weirdly pleasing to be referred to as a team.

Felix stays last. He stares at Chan with those big wide pleading eyes, even when Changbin himself had left. Jeongin is standing at the doorway of the opposite wall.

Chan nods to Felix, stepping aside and allowing him in.

Jeongin smiles gratefully, and a second later, he is gone.

The door closes shut.

Credit : iwant2tellyouthatiloveyou / Instagram

"Hyung? Minho Hyung?" Felix gently says, sitting on the bed in front of the older. He doesn't receive an answer. Minho is frozen, eyes glassy and empty. It's as if all life has left and only his body remains. It's a scary sight, one Chan had already seen on Jisung.

Chan turns around toward the bathroom. There, he grabs a towel and a bowl that he fills with cold water. He carefully brings them back to the room just as Felix trembles with wide tearful and panicked eyes.

Felix is staring at Minho with different eyes than the ones he used to look Minho with for the past month. That much Chan is sharp enough to notice. He looks at him like the way he looks at Jeongin. Like the way Chan himself look at Jisung and Changbin.

Chan sighs, sitting on the bed besides the two. He lowers the bowl and dips the towel inside. With one gentle finger, he turns Minho's chin toward him. "Minho can u hear me? It's Channi Hyung." Minho doesn't answer, but there's a light of recognition in his eyes. "Everything is going to be okey. You're alright. No one is going to hurt you."

He lifts the towel in front of Minho's eyes and slowly brings it to his skin. Minho flinches slightly, but he calms down almost immediately. He closes his eyes as Chan whips the sweat off his forehead.

"You're safe." Chan whispers. Minho's lips are shattered, like a dry land. His skin is pale, hands shaking.

Chan doesn't glance around when he says, "Go bring me his blood bag."

There’s a heavy silence that follows. Felix doesn’t move a muscle. Chan can feel his tense eyes on him, can smell the fear radiating in big waves.

Chan sighs yes again, drop his hand to his lap and turns to face Felix. “Have you not heard me?”

“I-How do you-”

Chan bits the inside of his lower lip, having to physically stops himself from being too harsh. “Look at him. Look at him Felix!” He points a hand to Minho who’s staring at the towel on Chan’s lap. “Look at his chattered lips. At his pale face and trembling hands. See how he can’t even summon a single tear.” 

Felix shots a look to Minho, and he flinches, fear crawling deeper in his eyes.

“Even his eyes are starting to turn red! You might not, but I can recognize a starving vampire when I see one.”

Chan regrets his words when a tear rolls down Felix’s cheek. He dips the towel back unto the water and focuses on his task. He takes a gentler tone as he says; “C’mon go grab it.”

“I don’t- I don’t know his passcode.”

“Minho?” Chan lifts Minho’s chin, searching for some recognition in his eyes. “Min what’s your passcode?”

Minho doesn’t answer. He stares unto Chan’s eyes, eyelids heavy.

“Grab Changbin with you.” Chan says, dropping his hand to hold Minho’s as he turns to Felix. “He knows how to break in locks. Tell him that I sent you.”

Felix nods uncertainly before he runs out of the room.

“You’re going to be okay” Chan says to Minho when it’s only the two of them. He pets the younger’s forehead with the towel. Slowly. Carefully.

Minho still doesn’t respond. His eyelids have become heavy; the only move in his attitude.

Felix comes back a few minutes later, a blanket cautiously cuddled against his chest. When his eyes meet Chan’s interrogative ones, he ushers to explain. “Hyung have a phobia of blood.”

He then adds defensively to Chan’s surprised face; “What? He can’t have fears because he’s a vampire?”

“I didn’t say anything.” The older mumbles, raising his hands as a sign of defeat.

Felix is about to give the blanket and blood within it to Minho when an arm stops him.

“Wait.”

Chan pulls out the towel he had been using. He opens the blood bag and dips a droplet of blood unto it.

Minho seems to react to the smell, his eyes opening wider.

“Here.” Chan reaches toward him, and he gently taps the blood stain on the towel on the younger’s lips.

Minho’s fangs grow instantly, and as his hands instantly reaches to grab the towel, Chan pulls it away and places the blanket with the blood bag in his grasp.

Felix and Chan watch in relief as Minho sinks his fangs unto the plastic and began to eagerly suck and swallow.

Chan glances at Felix. He’s looking at Minho with so much guilt and worry that it physically pains him to watch.

“You should leave now. I’ll take care of him.”

Felix hesitates. He stands up, goes for the door, but suddenly stops. He bits his lower lip, looking at the ground as if searching for something before he lifts his eyes. “Why are you doing all of this for us?”

_For us?_

Chan tilts his head. He attempts a comforting smile. “I am not a monster Lix. I’m not heartless, no matter what you might have heard about me. I would never leave anyone in such distress, use their traumas only to gain some miserable points.” He turns his head to Minho. His eyes are red, blood spattered around his month and on his collar. He looks so unbelievably tired. “Besides, I grew attached to the eight of us. Jisung says I have momma bear tendencies.”

He turns his head to Felix who looks like he lost some years.

“You can sleep at ease. 3racha will not reveal any of Lee Minho’s secrets.”

Minho takes his time to finish his blood bag, and when he does and aimlessly bites it with his fangs, Chan doesn’t take it away from him.

It’s only when his firm grip on it has loosened, that his eyes swell up with tears, that Chan finally moves.

He scouts closer and slowly takes the plastic bag away.

“I- I loved him.” The vampire says, cheeks wet and drowned. “He was a horrendous b-bastard but I- I loved him.”

His whole body starts trembling, his eyes finally gaining back their lucidity. He is so obviously hurting, but Chan sighs in relief. He will take this anytime to the lifeless eyes and dissociated mind.

“He was my father.” Minho sobs, his chest spasming as if inhaling his last breath.

Chan carefully wraps his arms around him, and when he doesn’t flinch nor fight it, he envelops him in his hold. “I know.” He says, patting his back, chin on Minho’s shoulder as he quietly chokes on his sobs.

“Children are such fools for blindly loving their parents no matter what.” Chan’s throat itches but be swallows it back down. “We always find them excuses and constantly crave for their recognition.”

He sighs, tightening his arms around Minho as if it is the only thing keeping him whole. “You are allowed to cry Min. Let it all out. I am here. I’ll protect you.”

And so Minho cries. He doesn’t cry from the adoptive father that was lost. He cries for Kim Seungmin his sweet seemingly perfect roommate that had to kill his friend’s father and live with the burning guilt for the rest of his life. He cries for the fear and trauma that ensued with finding his father pooling in his blood. He cries for Lee Felix, for the worthy brother that he will never be able to be to him. He cries for his biological parents, for witnessing their deaths and having to live to tell the tale. He cries because it’s only been a month and he crave to leave this damn castle that brought only pain.

Minho cries because Bang Chan is cradling him in his warm arms and that’s the only thing that feels right to do.

_POV SWITCH : Kim Seungmin_

Seungmin cries for a good portion of the night. He doesn’t do anything else, doesn’t really move nor make much sounds. He simply stays still on the floor, the wood of his bed digging on his back, suffocating on the guilt and pain he thought had started to ease. Though it didn’t. His crime will never disappear, will never be forgotten nor forgiven. He had taken someone’s life and he’ll have to live with the consequences probably for eternity.

He stops sobbing at 3 am, after he had accidently made himself throw up, and the tears go dry at around 4 am.

Hyunjin had stayed by his side the whole night. He had patted his back. Had whipped his tears, comforted him in one of his bear suffocating hugs that Seungmin never wanted to get out of. He had held back his hair when he had thrown up and had finally managed to make him sit on the bed after numerous filled attempts.

Hyunjin didn’t whisper sweet nothingness. He knew things weren’t okay. Didn’t know if they ever will. He said nothing, besides a few words of encouragement. No. Hyunjin didn’t speak, didn’t lie. He didn’t say meaningless words of comfort just to say something. Hyunjin stayed. He stayed and sat on the cold floor besides him wherever it was in the bedroom or the bathroom. He stayed and that’s the best thing anyone had ever done for him.

“Are you not disgusted of me?”

Seungmin’s voice is dry and broken from constant tearful use. It’s 4:19am when he finally finds the strength to speak.

Hyunjin smiles sadly. His knees are brought to his chest, long arms wrapped around them.

“I’m a bastard who stole someone else’s life. I don’t have any right to judge you.”

Seungmin frowns his eyebrows. He is about to protest when he is cut short.  
  
“Yes, that includes you killing someone. We’re in a war, everyone’s a murderer one way or another.”

_** UNLOCKED CLUE N•8  ** _

_** [#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click) ** _

Seungmin wants to say something. Wants to tell him that he isn’t a soldier nor an admiral. That he didn’t have any reason to kill Mr. Lee besides the one to protect his own life. Yet, he doesn’t. Because war is a horrendous crime against the humanity. It doesn’t have a reason either to whip entire families and countries from the face of earth. War eats one’s heart alive.

Seungmin didn’t think Hyunjin would say anything else, yet he does. “Minho was right this morning.”

_This morning_. It feels like a century ago when they had stood in the main hall and Hyunjin and Minho had fought.

“My whole life is a lie. Even Hwang Hyunjin is a lie. My name is not Hwang Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin is shaking, Seungmin notices. He is staring at the velvet blanket under him, eyes lost in the shadows of the darkness.

“My father is the king’s cousin. He is married and has numerous mistress. One of them was pregnant at the same time as his wife was. They both had a boy.”

He looks up at Seungmin, eyes glassy and half open, as if he would either faint or fall asleep at any moment. Seungmin doesn’t say anything. He keeps his face blank, unknowing if it’s because he doesn’t want to hurt Hyunjin, if he isn’t really surprised or if he is too hurt himself to manage an expression.

Hyunjin blinks his eyes once, then twice. “The wife’s son died. The mistress’ son survived. The Hwang needed a son badly. A legitimate one, not a bastard.”

Seungmin’s heart falls to his feet. He knows what Hyunjin is about to say before he mutters the awful words. “They switched the babies. Told the mistress that her son died and the wife that hers survived, when it was the opposite. I took the place of Hwang Hyunjin that had died at birth.”

Hyunjin doesn’t cry, but Seungmin has never heard so much pain in someone’s voice. It hurts more than if he had started crying and sobbing.

Without thinking much about it, Seungmin brings him close, engulfing him in a hug as if he could protect him from something that has already happened years ago. Hyunjin doesn’t answer the hug, but he digs his head in the younger’s shoulder. “I am nothing but a mere replica of the real Hyunjin that should have lived. I have been living his life all my existence. I stole the real Hyunjin’s life.”

He scoffs, then barks a laugh. “Do you know how it feels to look unto my adoptive mother’s eyes, having to hear every day her sweet caring words, having to see her smile, knowing far too well that they aren’t directed to me. She doesn’t have any idea that I’m not her son and it kills me every second of every day.” He clings his fingers on Seungmin’s shoulder, as if he is a rock holding him up from drowning. “I have to see my own biological mother work in the kitchens in dirty dresses while I walk around in gold. Knowing that the life I should have had was to be beside her. And I want to be, I _crave_ to be, but the blanket that cuddles me to sleep is warm and the ceiling is high.” Hyunjin’s voice breaks and so does his defense, tears racing across his cheeks. “It’s the worst punishment anyone could have put on me. It felt like I was dying every day. So I had to leave.”

Seungmin hums, temporarily throwing his own chagrin to be the back of his mind. Almost forgotten. “That’s why you came to Orenda?”

He can feel Hyunjin nod on his shoulder. “That’s my third secret.”

“What?” Seungmin yelps in shock, recoiling back from the hug. “You- Why?”

Hyunjin smiles tearfully, whipping his tears. “We all did horrible things to survive Seungmin. You are not different.”

He laughs, and somehow it sounds a bit more genuine this time. “We both know each other’s darkest secret. We’re even.”

_** POV SWITCH: Lee Minho ** _

_** UNLOCKED LOCATION :  ** _

_** Bang Chan’s and Yang Jeongin’s Room ** _

Minho stayed locked in Chan’s room for the first week of October. His whole life, he never had been given the privilege to rest. Even when he had a fever of 40, he still was forced to meet people and do this and that and look presentable. He never had overslept, never stayed in bed latter than 6am. The past week had felt like he was hung in a cloud, mind clogged with fog. It was the first rest he had been allowed to have in his entire life.

Chan didn’t make him feel like he was a burden. He didn’t overwhelm him, nor did he force him to move or leave. He always stayed patient, constantly had a dimpled smile plastered on his lips like a shop would showcase its best item. Weirdly, his smiles never felt fake. His kindness never felt forced. Minho had never seen someone this genuine before.

Chan didn’t visit Minho between each of his classes alone. No, sometimes he would bring with him Jisung and Changbin. Other times it was Felix and Jeongin. Seungmin and Hyunjin never came, but Minho didn’t ask for them. It was for the better. At least, for now.

Jisung always threw loads of junk food on Minho’s bed; from candies to chocolate cakes. Changbin took great care to smother him with vegetables and smoothies that had an after taste of blood. There’s not a single part of him that doubt the fact that Chan told them that he’s a vampire, but Minho doesn’t find it in him to care. He doesn’t ask how they manage to sneak blood inside the smoothies, but coming from 3racha, it doesn’t really come as a surprise. Every day, three times a day, Chan was the one to bring him a tray of food that isn’t vegetables or candies.

When Minho started to smile easier, the six of them would spend their evenings together. Homework and studies session, or so Chan had called it. It was his idea, though he was the one that ended up rolling on the floor in a fist of giggles at something stupid Jisung had either done or said, and no one would manage to focus back.

The second week is harder that the first, because Minho realizes that he can’t stay locked up in a room that isn’t even his, forever. He starts attending back class, gradually. He always has someone by his side, but mostly it always is Felix. They don’t really talk about them being long lost brothers. Minho knows Felix wants too, has hundred questions to ask, a couple thousand to say, but he doesn’t, and Minho is awfully grateful for it.

It’s Friday the 13th, on their way back to their dorm at 8:00pm when things take a turn to the worse.

[CHOICE]

🌲🧝 vs 🌊🧜


	14. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth” - The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POLL RESULT : 
> 
> 🌲🧝 46,2%  
>  🌊🧜 53,8 %

Friday, October 13th.

“Minho hyung! Minho hyung!”

Jisung is yelping excitedly, hands high in the air as he waves across the hall. He then proceeds to run toward Minho, Felix and Jeongin, Changbin and Chan following behind him with a small exasperated grin on their lips.

“We’re not allowed to run in the halls Ji.” Minho mumbles when he is close enough, ruffling his hair. Jisung frowns at the action, chasing the action away with a shake of his head. 3racha when they aren’t scouting a stiff serious expression, are weirdly incredibly adorable.

“You will never guess what I borrowed from the cafeteria.”

“What you stole.” Changbin corrects when he reaches the small group.

“Borrowed.” Jisung throws him a glare.

Felix picks at the mention of food, swinging from one foot to the other. “Brownies?” His face frowns. “I regret not eating them.”

“Better.” Jisung leans to whisper his secret. “Strawberry Ice Cream!”

Felix and Jeongin gasps dramatically, making Minho roll his eyes. “It’s going to melt.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him!” Chan sighs. “I don’t think he understands the concept of cold and hot.”

Jisung scouts him a disgusted glance. “Our room is always cold. We’re going to eat it quickly anyway.”

They keep discussing about the hidden place Jisung had so smartly stored his prize and Minho zones out. The long tall castle hallways are deserted and dimly lit. It’s already past 9:30pm, the curfew closing up on them sooner than he had wished it would. It’s a weird feeling, not being alone but rather surrounded by a group of _friends_. It makes his chest warm and giddy.

“If you don’t mind, I wanted to ask you guys something.”

Minho snaps his mind back to focus, turning his head to focus on Jeongin who’s staring at the floor with a blush on his cheeks.

“You all already know that I’m a siren. I wanted to go swim for a bit because my skin is getting really dehydrated but-” he hesitates, trapping his lower lip inside his mouth.

“But what Innie?” Minho asks, head tilted.

“But I’m kind of scared of going alone. I thought we can go together and hang out more.” Jeongin rises wide hopeful eyes surprised ones.

Chan’s face is the first to break unto a genuine lovely smile. “Of course buddy,”

“I always wanted to see a siren. Can we really come?” Jisung jumps in excitement, already following after Jeongin as he leads them down the hall. The younger is about to respond when he abruptly come to a halt.

In front of the group, stands Seungmin and Hyunjin.

They both are looking at the ground, and tension immediately poisons the air, as if they haven’t been laughing a second ago.

Minho suppress a sigh, and he walks ahead of the group.

“Hyunjin, Seungmin, why don’t you come with us? Jeongin wanted to give us some swimming lessons.”

His tone is forced to be casual, but even attempting a joke doesn’t work out. Both boys are staring at him as if he had told them that they were sentenced to life prison.

“Jeongin, that’s okey with you right? If all eight of us came?”

Jeongin nods quickly, fumbling with his words. “Y-yes of course.”

Minho attempts a smile that makes his cheeks ache. He starts heading toward the first-floor basement, everyone else following his lead.

They walk in silence for several minutes, no one daring to talk above the tension still heavily coating the air. It’s only when they reach the door that supposedly takes to the underground pool that the awkwardness breaks in favour to genuine curiosity.

Jeongin pulls the heavy door open, and before entering he asks: “Is anyone claustrophobic? The hallway is quite narrow.”

No one speaks up, so he nods again before disappearing in the darkness. “Follow me. Don’t get lost.”

The hall is long, the walls made of rough rock, and the floor uneven. It smells of rust and dust for long minutes until they reach stairs that takes them further down underground. There, the scents switch unto a sea salty breeze. It’s not the best smell Minho had smelt, but it’s weirdly calming.

The stairs come to a halt and when Jeongin walks further unto the unknown room and Minho follows after him, he is left gaping in shock.

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : Underground pool** _

_**Credit :**_ [Olga Antonenko](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/vGq6E?epik=dj0yJnU9ODdBTFNnZzZOekhXbGp6Z2J4WEFTUlg2NjZuaEhyWFQmcD0wJm49SG5IT20yalNuNjJJQXFybHZxRmxpQSZ0PUFBQUFBR0FYSDdV)

The area is wide, formed in a circle. There are rocks under their feet, and a sort of river encircling a tiny sized piece of land where a small tree is blooming. The waters are a greenish and bluish shade, and a hole has been torn on the ceiling above the tree, allowing moonlight through.

Their gasps of amazement echoes in the room, duplicating their voices.

Minho approaches the water, and when he is close enough, he lowers himself on the ground. His feet sink in the river, and it’s so dark and profound that its end can’t be seen.

Jeongin appears at the corner of his eyes, and when Minho turns his head, the younger is smiling at him with his warm sharp eyes. His chest is bare, and he is only wearing shorts. Slowly and carefully, his body slithers in the waters as if they are one.

Once all his lower body is underneath, it takes the split of a second before a blue tail erupts unto the air.

“It’s the most gorgeous piece of tail I’ve seen in my whole life.” Jisung shouts from somewhere behind Minho.

Jeongin giggles in contentment, his hair loses some shades, now almost as white as the moon above. His arms are painted with scales that looks like little wings about to make him fly.

_**YANG JEONGIN SIREN** _

[Credit](https://masthya.tumblr.com/post/175628426928/a-commission-of-siren-killua-i-made-commissioned/amp?epik=dj0yJnU9WWdIWWJwZXVtMzhwaFVGVEI3aVV4Mmx6dTBNNnpBblQmcD0wJm49NnBhUWszY3VveDNyLVN2bWhPbmhhZyZ0PUFBQUFBR0FZR2Vv%C2%A0)

“I can’t believe we’ve been attending this castle for three years and never came here” Changbin says, to which Chan nods eagerly.

Felix doesn’t look surprised. He must have come with Jeongin a handful of times already.

The silence slowly creeps back unto the room, and soon it’s only the sound of the waters moved by Jeongin’s tail that fills the air.

 _It’s now or never,_ Minho thinks.

“I’m sorry.” He suddenly says.

All heads turn to him, and he focuses to leave his eyes on the floor as a shade of pink climb up his cheeks and neck.

He summons some courage and look up.

“Hyunjin, I’m sorry.”

Hyunjin gasps in shock, his mouth opening and closing multiple times in a silent mutism.

“I shouldn’t have blown things out of proportion. It’s like you said; just a damn competition. I’m sorry.”

“N-no no no” Hyunjin waves his hands in front of him, as if he could stop Minho’s words from reaching him. “You have nothing to apologize for I-”

“No I do.” Minho’s resolves straighten as he fixes his eyes unto the witch. “We’ve known each other for years. You must have felt betrayed to hear from someone else that I had lied and am not a witch.”

Hyunjin looks startled. He stays frozen, staring at Minho. Then, his eyes swell up with tears and a smile breaks from his lips.

Before Hyunjin can decide that it might be a good idea to hug Minho to death, the older turns his head to Seungmin who visibly recoils back.

Minho only feels slightly embarrassed to open up in front of everyone, but they already have seen him in his darkest lowest state to really care about such details.

“I don’t blame you for what you did Seungmin.”

Seungmin’s eyes shake in surprise. Minho looks away, unable to hold his stare.

Jeongin swims toward him, and Minho accepts the hand that holds his.

“My father was a horrible man. I know how it feels to have a knife under your throat. He’d done that to me countless of times.”

He sighs, eyes unfocused in the depth of the waters.

“I’m just... displeased at the trauma that ensued from being the one to find his body.”

Minho looks up to Seungmin who’s face is drowned in tears. He attempts a smile. “I just need some time, but I want you to know that I do not hold you guilty for what happened. You were only protecting yourself.”

Seungmin is about to say something when clapping hands abruptly makes him stop. They turn their heads in search of the origin of the sound, when their eyes land on a figure walking out from the darkness.

“Congratulations!” Mrs. Rose says in a faked enthusiasm. “Sharing such beautiful secrets in groups! Couldn’t have expected better from people like you!” Sarcasm bleeds from her tone, vibrating in the atmosphere unto Minho’s skull.

Chan takes protective steps forward, standing in front of the group. A trained faked smile is adoring his face. “Professor, it’s a surprise to find you here.”

Minho stands up. He walks backward, and he grabs Seungmin’s hand as he tries to hide him behind his body. His emotions aside, he would never want the younger to be sent to prison because of the gruesome person his adoptive father used to be.

Felix subtly reaches from Jeongin’s hand, pulling him out of the water and unto the ground, clothes pressed close to his chest to not wet them.

“I have always told the headmistress that the three of you would be nothing but trouble.” She walks around Chan, and heads straight to Jisung before she stops in front of him. “You kept failing year after year, yet the higher up still accepted to bring you back.”

Her head tilts as she leans her head close to Jisung’s face. Disgust slips from her tone like venom. “Three sons of a whore. I knew you-”

Mrs. Rose never gets to finish her sentence.

Her face freezes. Her lips lose their devilish smile as her mouth starts uttering repulsive sounds. Slowly, Minho follows her eyes down to her chest. There, is a spike, shaped like a sword of darkness, dug through her left side chest. Jisung’s eyes are entirely black, similar to two black holes. His hand is holding unto the darkness of the dagger, face expressionless. In a second, the weapon disappears into thin air, and Mrs. Rose is left bleeding out and making these horrible sounds. She stumbles backward, trips on a rock, and is sent falling toward the river. It all happens so suddenly, and so painfully slowly. Her body falls back in slow mention, but then it gains speed and she fall like a bullet.

She doesn’t move.

Her eyes are staring unto the ceiling, lifeless and unseeing. Her long red hair is floating around her head, a gruesome match to the blood coming out of her chest and colouring the waters around her body.

Minho’s vision goes dark, and it takes several long minutes to realize that someone has put their hand in front of his eyes. It’s Felix, his brain tells him, but it’s useless. He had already seen it, and it keeps playing behind his eyes like a broken disk. Her body, falling in slow mention. Her eyes on the ceiling. Unseeing, lifeless like one of a doll. A heart that will beat no more. A life that had been torn so abruptly in between two heartbeats. Just like that, so easily. So effortlessly. Forever gone. She is floating in her own blood, so much blood. A red gruesome blood laughing at him. _I took yet another life_ , it laughs at him. It’s not Mrs. Rose that is dead on the waters, her body changes to his adoptive mother. Then, it switches to his adoptive father. His biological Father. His biological Mother. Felix’s. Felix body is floating, eyes forever dead. The corpses glitch and changes again and again and again.

Minho doesn’t realize that he’s screaming, until his throat loudly protests. Someone is sobbing close to his ear and he has to force himself to stop and listen to who it might be.

It’s Felix. Arms tightly and protectively wrapped around him. His vision slowly comes back to him, and when it does, he realizes that he is sitting on the floor. Jeongin, Seungmin, Hyunjin and Felix are huddled around him, standing a few feet from Changbin and Chan that are hovering over Jisung’s unconscious body.

Minho forces his eyes to turn toward the waters, where Mrs. Rose’s body is still floating. He swallows back a wave nausea, and as if his body has been jolted with electricity, he suddenly stands up.

Chan snaps his head toward him, and he _growls_ , long sharp canines bare.

The young vampire forces himself not to step back. He can hear in everyone’s heartbeat the fear poising every pulsation. Changbin is coddling Jisung’s unconscious body to his chest, as Chan stands protectively in front of both of them.

“Chan.” Minho says, trying to keep his voice stable. “Chan, we _need_ to leave.”

Chan doesn’t move. He growls again.

Anger replaces fear, and Minho takes a step forward. “CHAN! WAKE UP!” he screams. “You want the whole school to find us like _this_?”

Recognition sparkles in Chan’s eyes. Minho takes it as an encouragement to insist.

“We need to leave. _Now_.”

Chan glances around him. He then nods, before turning toward Jisung and Changbin. He kneels besides them, murmurs something to Changbin before they both pull Jisung on Changbin’s back.

Minho turns to the four standing behind him. “Jeongin, do you know an exit that will get us out of here besides the one we came through? We can’t risk anyone seeing us.”

Jeongin quickly nods. “There’s one that takes us out unto the woods.”

“Great.” Chan says, adjusting Jisung on Changbin’s back. “I know the woods. I will guide us.”

Jeongin glances at Minho who nods.

Without a look to the corpse left behind, they leave.

_**UNLOCKED LOCATION : Forest at night** _

_**Credit :[rotro.ashish](https://www.instagram.com/p/CGhpVgIJl-R/?igshid=irohi043tl6h)** _

Credit : [ABBKBB](https://photohito.com/photo/3597272/?epik=dj0yJnU9cUg3QUpjRFBDVEdwV2JrNzRRdVdYVmhvWXRESHZISFomcD0wJm49bHVsaXY2ZUw5a28wdDZlY1JCWlpIQSZ0PUFBQUFBR0FZSEhz)

Credit : [Kagedan](https://www.flickr.com/photos/kagedan/19365484438?epik=dj0yJnU9MG9XbWtZS1VfRTVQM3FqeTgxdEZBR0FreVltNnJfSEkmcD0wJm49VTJsei1oajlPTXMwOG85WWM0X3BkdyZ0PUFBQUFBR0FZSE9n)

Credit : [BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/S7fVxv7VwB4kPGkPSjWnbN/firefly-fireworks?epik=dj0yJnU9U0czRDdWMW9aT2p0QWtEaGZuSXVteWJsY0xFTURseVQmcD0wJm49SmNQbk5WY1pna2RxYnQxZFpRbUVqQSZ0PUFBQUFBR0FZSFNZ)

Chan transforms unto a grey wolf as soon as they are out in the open. It doesn’t come as a surprise to no one after the way he had growled and bared his teeth at them. In a way, it’s comforting to have him on their side to protect them from any wild animal that might be lurking in the darkness of the woods.

And so they run.

They run breathlessly, as if their lungs had never been made to breathe. They run without a single care to their aching legs. They run and run and run, as if a monster is chasing them. Yet, they are the monsters they’re so desperately trying to get away from. Minho doesn’t allow himself to think. He focuses on his legs as they make their way through the unsteady unfamiliar forest. No one falls, no one trips. It must be Seungmin’s doing, because he has been constantly mumbling under his breath as the forest opens up to welcome them in its embrace and closes up behind them. Fireflies are floating at their feet, illuminating their path.

They finally come to a halt when Chan decides that they’ve gone far enough.

Chan’s wolf howls at Changbin as he nudges his leg. The younger seems to understand, and he gently lowers Jisung against a tree. Everyone is panting, but Jisung is sobbing. He must have woken up in the middle of the run.

“I- I’m so sorry” he cries, face hidden behind his hands. “I- I couldn’t c-control it.” Sobs violently shakes his chest like an earthquake, and he looks close enough to either collapse or throw up.

Minho doesn’t find it in himself to be mad at him. He tries to look within himself for any ounce that might regret Mrs. Rose’s death, and maybe he had seen too many deaths in his life, because Minho doesn’t find anything. Doesn’t regret her passing if only for the fact that they are now in big trouble and for the horrible memories it unlocked. He is disgusted at himself, but he can’t find the strength to feel anything. He is numb.

“Fuck.”

Felix lowly swears, gaining back his breathe.

Hyunjin is walking in a circle around them, hands casted in the air and whispering a silencing spell.

“Wh-What now?” Seungmin asks, obviously trying not to look Jisung’s way.

Chan’s wolf is laying on Jisung’s legs, whimpering as he licks the blood and tears off the younger’s face.

Changbin is standing in front of them protectively.

“He needs to say something!” Hyunjin snaps, pointing at Jisung who visibly flinches. “It was his doing. If he hadn’t killed her, none of us would be here.”

“We can say it’s legitim defence or something.” Jeongin says to which Felix shakes his head. “But it wasn’t. He just- _killed_ her.”

Changbin takes a step forward. “I’LL TAKE THE BLAME OKEY? I’LL SAY THAT I KILLED HER!” his eyes tear up, eyes shining red in utter pain and concern. “If anyone hears about this, they will DESTROY him. Do you really think he’ll be able to handle it?” He points at Jisung behind him. He is crouched on the floor, heartbreaking sobs coming out of his body in waves that almost makes Minho stumble back by the mere force of it. He looks away. “LOOK AT HIS STATE! LOOK AT HIM!”

_** UNLOCKED CLUE N•6  ** _

_** [#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click) ** _

__** **

There’s a silence only filled by Jisung’s cries.

Minho can’t stand it anymore.

He walks toward the trio and kneels in front of Jisung.

Chan glares at him with his yellow wolf eyes, but he doesn’t do anything.

“It’s going to be okey.” Minho whispers as he brings a shaky hand to Jisung’s cheek. He whips away the saliva mixed with tears that Chan’s wolf tongue had left behind. “It’s not okey right now, but things will get better. The pain will fade away.”

Jisung stops crying. His body hiccups at interval of times, but he has come to a halt as if attentively listening to Minho. He looks up at him with those wide pleading and destroyed eyes.

Minho smiles. He opens his arms. “I promise.”

Jisung lounges toward him, and it’s so easy for Minho to wrap the shaking boy inside his chest. Chan stands up and walks away, allowing Jisung to adjust in his hold.

Gently caressing the younger’s hair, Minho looks up at everyone’s eyes staring at him. “We need to take a decision.”

His words hover in the air threateningly before Changbin sighs and his shoulders relaxes a tiny bit.

“Jisung is a hybrid.” He says. “He is half a wolf and a half witch.”

No one reacts to the slightest, so he continues. “He is not any witch, but a witch of the moon and darkness. Meaning that it’s extremely hard for him to control his magic.”

Seungmin nods to himself. “I am an elf of the dark. I know how it feels to have your mind captured by the darkness.”

Changbin smiles gratefully. “You know Jisung. He usually wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Has this happened before? Has he previously…” Jeongin trails off, but everyone understands his question.

Changbin shakes his head. “He did lose control before, but it never come to this. This is just… a terrible tragic accident.”

“One that costed someone’s life.” Felix mumbles.

“She was a bitch anyway.” Minho surprises himself saying. Stunned eyes turn to his. “What?” he asks defensively, tightening his arms around Jisung like a mom coddling its child. “We all hated her. I’m trying to keep us sane here.”

He sighs when a few minutes pass and no one says anything. “Listen, there’s no need to point fingers. We are all involved in this murder. No one can get out of this as if nothing happened.” He runs a hand in his hair. “We are all partner in crime. You think the people who control this castle will believe anything we say?”

He glares at all of them. “If you are planning on opening your mouth on what happened tonight, do it now or take the secret to your grave.”

There’s a silence.

“I will follow what you decide.” Felix says. Minho nods gratefully.

“I know how it feels to be in this kind of situation. I have been there already.” Seungmin.

“I am not one to judge. I will keep my mouth shut.” Hyunjin.

“I will follow what Felix decides.” Jeongin finally says.

Chan howls unto the night. He disappears behind a tree before he comes back out fully clothed.

“There are two ways we can do this.” He says as he stands at the center. Jisung looks up from Minho’s shoulder. “We either keep going, doing everything in our power to make it to the new land; Orenda.”

He looks around him. “Or we do our utmost to get kicked out of here and forget any dream we may had had when we put a foot in this castle.”

Heaviness unfolds.

An owl stares down at them from a branch.

“3racha personally don’t want to run away. We’ve worked so hard the past three years to get where we are. There’s nothing nor no one waiting for us out there. We need to make it.” Changbin says in despair.

Hyunjin stares down at his feet. “I want to leave. I can’t keep going like this.”

“I also think it’s better if we leave.” Seungmin ads. “We can rent an apartment somewhere and stick together. I don’t want to risk staying here.”

“Agree.” Jeongin follows.

“That’s three against three.” Chan says before turning his eyes to Felix.

“I will do whatever Minho Hyung decides to do.”

Chan turns toward Minho, arms crossed against his chest. “The decision is up to you Minho. What should we do?”

_**[FINAL CHOICE]** _

_**STAY vs LEAVE** _


	15. “When the sun shines, we'll shine together Told you I'll be here forever Said I'll always be your friend Took an oath, I'ma stick it out 'til the end”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Results : 
> 
> Stay: 78,6%  
> Leave: 21,4%

"I think..."

Minho crumbles under the pressuring stares on him. He sighs and looks away. Trying to take the right decision, his eyes loses focus on a family of fireworks turning around each other on the ground a couple of feet away.

"Running away will only make us look guilty. Which we are, but no one needs to know that."

He falls to the temptation and looks back at the team they make. A weird bunch of fucked up kids involved in a murder. Great.

"We all came here with the decision to start anew and leave everything behind. What is there to go back too?"

He had said the last part to himself more than anyone else, but from the unfocused lost eyes of everyone, they all seem to relate. Minho doesn't have anyone in this world. His parents are gone. Their fortune is not his to take, and that deserted ghost filled castle is a curse no less. Felix is the only person he would sacrifice everything for. Yet, even Felix is a stranger who has a family of his own.

"I'm not one to leave things unfinished. We need to keep running forward till the end." His eyes are determined, set ablaze.

Chan nods once, then twice.

Jisung’s troubled state seem to have stabilized if only for a moment. His grip on Minho loosens, and when Changbin crouches down and opens his arms, the hybrid doesn’t hesitate to latch himself on him.

Minho stands up, muscles sour from the uncomfortable position. Felix immediately walks closer to him.

No one speaks. It’s silent for a while, before he decides to continue his path of thoughts.

“I have a request though.” He says, making everyone’s eyes go to his. “If we decide to do this, we need to be a team.”

“Of course,” Chan hurriedly says, but Minho speaks over him. “No, you don’t get it. We need to be able to completely trust each other. We’re not eight friends anymore, but _brothers_. A whole. If one falls, everyone falls.”

Jeongin nods quickly, looking relieved.

Minho continues, “Which means, we need to be transparent to each other. No thriller novel worthy mysterious character. _No secrets_."

Hyunjin gasps in shock, everyone's eyes going wide in surprise. "Y-you mean..."

"Yes. All the cards on the table. The three of them. I want everyone to know each other's race, financial statue, and third secret." Minho smirks. "This way, no one can betray the other."

There's another tense followed silence.

"Are we all in?" he asks, throwing a glance around the circle.

"I'm in." Felix says.

"I'm in." Jeongin.

Then, Seungmin. "I'm in."

Hyunjin doesn't look bothered the slightest. He yawns. "I'm in." 

They turn their heads to 3racha.

Chan glances down at Jisung and Changbin. The three of them seem to exchange a silent conversation. Chan and Changbin turns their eyes to Jisung. There's a moment of stretched silence before Jisung nods. The two older boys simultaneously nod after receiving his approval.

"We're in." Chan finally says. "All in."

The words settle down on the eight of them. _We're really doing this,_ Minho thinks.

"Alright, we can share our darkest secrets another day." Chan glances at the moon above. "We have thirty minutes left before the curfew. We are gaining back to our rooms by group of two. Roommates obviously."

Seungmin throws Minho a worried glance, to which the older warmly smiles at. In other circumstances, he would probably have needed more time to go back to share a room with the elf, but given the current unfortunate series of events, his father's death is the last of his concern.

"Minho and Seungmin, you go first. Then, Hyunjin and Felix. Jisung and Changbin. Finally, me and Jeongin." Chan orders. "I want each pair to join the dorms from different directions. North, South, East and West."

The group divides, forming unto the duos Chan had decided. "We meet in the cafeteria at 6am sharp. Take the night to make sure that you agree on following the plan, because once we start, there's no going back."

He lets his words settle in. "We'll decide then our alibi. There's no doubt that the entirety of the students will be interrogated once they find the body."

No one says anything, and so they quickly regain their rooms.

Jeongin has to physically stops himself from moving too much. Although Chan's presence is a comfort, he can't help but be anxious and paranoid at leaving the forest last. Thankfully, he doesn't have to wait much longer before the leader and himself take the west building to go back to their dorm.

The halls are devoid of any alive roaming soul, making their feet the only sound echoing against the tall walls. Chan's steps are silent, like one of a wolf. 

Once they reach the safety of their room, Jeongin makes sure to close the door behind him.

He changes unto his pajamas, even though he’s sure that none of them will really be able to close an eye tonight. Every time his eyelids fall shut for longer than a second, Mrs. Rose lifeless eyes show up to him like a movie stuck on repeat on a particular scene. He wonders for a second if it isn’t too cruel to leave here there, the warmth of her body going ice cold as she continues to float on the makeshift river, waiting for anyone to find her.

He blinks the frustration and anguish away, sits on his bed, and focuses his attention on his roommate.

Chan is standing by the window, eyes staring outside.

Jeongin dares to ask the burning question that’s resting on the edge of his tongue ever since he had met the trio two years ago.

“Channi hyung”

Chan hums, but he doesn’t turn around.

“You, Changbin and Jisung... You’re not really just _friends,_ are you?”

Chan abruptly snaps his head to meet his eyes.

Jeongin shivers, and for the first time in his life, he is _terrified_.

The moonlight is filtering through the curtains, shining its light on the wolf’s pale skin. His eyes glitch to icy blue as they glare down at Jeongin. Chan is stiff. He rises an eyebrow and tilts his head to the side like one would to an insignificant prey.

_“Those are people you need to stay away from”_ Seungmin’s voice resonates in his head from what now feels like forever ago, when they had stood in the forest on their first night here, and the elf had whispered those words to Minho as he caught him staring at the trio. _“Seriously, if you want to stay in Orenda for more than a month, don’t try to piss off 3racha.”_

And Seungmin had been right. Everyone that had stood against them had found himself expelled from Orenda. Heck the reason they managed to survive for three years in a row. Mrs. Rose’s corpse is bathing in her own blood six feet under because she had dared to anger Han Jisung. Chan had seemed ready to jump at their neck when he thought they would be a threat to Changbin and Jisung, and if Minho hadn’t stopped him, Jeongin can only wonder if his own body wouldn’t be floating alongside his teacher. 3racha are... _dangerous_. Mysterious. They have such a tight bond that makes Jeongin think that they would walk on a mountain of corpses if only to protect each other.

Though against his reasonable will, Jeongin keeps talking. He had always been too fierce and untamable for his own good.

“I have seen the way you look at each other. The way you act as if you are only one body. The way Changbin jumped to take the blame of the murder without an ounce of hesitation.” He gulps, trying not to sound too affected. “The way _you_ were ready to kill us the second you all but thought that we were a threat to Changbin and Jisung.”

Chan doesn’t look away. He doesn’t budge, doesn’t look ashamed or guilty.

Jeongin sighs. Frustrated at the lack of response. “I’ve known you three the longest. There’s no way that you are not related one way or another.”

“Did you talk about this with anyone?” Chan’s voice is low, threatening. When he receives a negative shake of head, he asks again. “Have you sent a letter about us to the administration?”

_So it is related to one of their secrets,_ Jeongin thinks.

He shakes his head again. “I didn’t. I promise.”

Chan seems to relax.

His shoulders fall, and he looks back outside the window.

His threatening aura is now gone, the shivering cold left behind is the only proof that it had once been here, and he almost looks like he’ll start crying.

“Changbin and Jisung...” Chan says in a murmur of exhausted pain. “To them, I want to be everything they didn’t have the privilege to; a mother, a father, a best friend, safety and the certitude that they’ll wake up the next morning and find me by their sides.”

_** UNLOCKED CLUE N•1  ** _

_** [#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click) ** _

He doesn’t say anything more. His shoulders are pulled down, as if the galaxy above is hanging on them.

He turns to face Jeongin as he sits on his bed. “I promise to explain when everyone is present. I don’t have the strength to tell the story twice.”

_**[UNLOCKED PAST]** _

_**3RACHA** _

_**Credit :[flaviobolla](https://www.deviantart.com/flaviobolla/art/The-Power-of-Loneliness-347790479)** _

_**** _

From then, Chan doesn’t know if he fell asleep or if he started hallucinating. One second he was in the warmness of the fancy castle, and the other, he is in a squared room with dirty walls. There are two mattresses on the floor pushed against each other, a sheet that used to be white is thrown across them. A small window with bars is forged on the wall opposite the closed door; a small pick of freedom.

_“Hyung-ah”_

Chan’s eyes travel down. A five years old boy is sitting half on the floor, half on the naked mattress. He is looking up at him, as if his Hyung is the most precious and important person in the world. To the child’s eyes, Chan probably is. The weight of the look he is casting him are heavy. Almost unbearable. It makes the three years older boy proud, in a way, and he wouldn’t want those eyes to be directed to anyone else.

_“A classmate said that Mommy is a prostitution. Is it true? Is Mommy really a prostitution?”_

Chan’s 8 years old heart falls to his knees. He had expected that question. Had known Jisung would start asking questions sooner rather than later. He had prepared a hundred ways of explaining it to his younger brother. Had promised himself that Jisung would not understand their mother’s job through the venom bullying of others like he himself had. Like Changbin had. He had promised himself that he would make it right for Jisung. Yet, kids are cruel and their words biting like a blade hungry for blood.

_“It’s prostitute. P-R-O-S-T-I-T-U-T-E”_ Changbin rises his head from where he had been reading a book he most likely doesn’t understand. He stole it from the library, and he had affirmed with a displeased frown that it is quite a shame that paper isn’t eatable.

Chan hadn’t had the heart to tell him that anything is eatable, it’s the way that the human body reacts to it that is the problem. He hadn’t told Changbin because he didn’t want him to know that hunger can be so slaughtering that even finding paper to eat is a blessing.

Chan had eaten various things that shouldn’t be eaten in his short life.

He had eaten a half greenish piece of bread that he had found in the mud behind a bakery when he was five and the women his mother had left them with temporarily couldn’t afford to feed him, 2 years old Jisung and 3 years old Changbin. He had eaten a flower wet from a nighty rain when he was 6 and had spent the small allowance their mother had given their yet again temporarily nanny on feeding both his younger brothers.

Food is a privilege. It’s a luxury for children like them with an absent mother who lives in a brothel and let her children roam from house to house like stray cats. It wasn’t hard to find people who could take them in; children of prostitute are numerous. As far as one can pay, there’s multiple homes taking in those kids. Chan had lived in them before Changbin and Jisung were even born. The living conditions had been horrible, and once Chan gained a few more years, their mom decided to rant a room and give the allowance directly to her oldest son.

Chan had been forced to become an adult at the age of 8, with a few pennies in hand weekly, a rotten room in a rotten city, with two younger brothers to rise.

Changbin is staring at him with those big eyes full of pride and need of praises and love. Chan wants to look away. _“I spelled it well right?”_

He forces a smile before ruffling his hair.

_“So what does that mean?”_ Jisung pesters, big wide curious and unknowing eyes staring hopefully at Chan. Seeking for attention and care.

Chan ruffles his hair with his other hand. Then, he brings them down to squeezes Jisung’s smaller ones. Somehow, they fit perfectly inside Chan’s. _“It’s mom’s job.”_

_“Is that why she’s never here?”_ His voice is small, incapable of hiding the sadness in it. His shoulders slump.

What can Chan answers to that?

He nods, humming a response as he squeezes Jisung’s hands. He doesn’t trust his voice to speak; the tears are already constructing his throat like that one time he caught a cold after spending too much time selling bread on the streets. The baker across the road had trusted him with that job, and every once in a while, he would give Chan some to take back to Jisung and Changbin.

_“Is mom’s job really hard?”_ Jisung asks, playing with Chan’s fingers.

_“Really hard.”_ Chan reassures. _“Hey”_ he lifts his younger brother’s chin with a finger. _“Don’t listen to what the other kids say okey? Do you remember what I always tell you?”_

Changbin lifts his head eagerly, book falling on his lap. His wings flip on his back, sending fairy dust to crumble on the floor. With the danger of other children harming his wings, because it had once happened before, Chan made sure Changbin allowed them out when it was only the three of them. _“Haters hate because they live low!”_

He giggles, and his malnourished wings sparks brighter. _“H-A-T-E-R-S”_

Changbin then goes back to his book. He spells the words out loud, testing their pronunciations on the tip of his tongue. Jisung stares at him over his shoulder, eyes wide and curious.

Chan drags a plastic bag closes to his chest. He opens it carefully and pulls out two wrapped breads.

_“Dinner.”_ He says as he gives one to each.

Jisung gasps in contentment. While he takes big bites, Changbin takes small ones. Chan watches them eat fondly. His stomach twist and complains, but he ignores it. It’s fine, he is 8 years old now. A big boy. A little hunger is nothing.

When they are done, he rushes the two boys to get ready for bed.

Changbin puts down his book. Jisung cuddles under the thin blanket. They left him a place in the middle, as they always did.

_“Hyung-ah”_ Jisung yawns. _“Quick quick”_ he mumbles in his sleepiness. _“Sand Man is going to catch you out of bed!”_

Chan is about to turn out the lights when the door opens.

A woman enters the room, a large familiar smile on her red lips. _“My babies”_ she whispers as she lounges forward toward Jisung and Changbin.

_“MOM!”_ Both boys scream in joy as they jump in her arms.

Chan wishes Jisung and Changbin wouldn’t be this attached to her. He wishes that she didn’t have this much power on them. He wishes they could hate her. He wishes the two boys would love him more than they love her. When she was nowhere to be seen, he was the one who raised Jisung and Changbin. He was the one who begged on the street for a miserable pennie to get either of them new shoes. He was the one who stayed up all night looking after them when they would get sick. He was the one who dropped out of school so he can get a job and fulfill their needs because the allowance she sent were few and far in between. Him. Not their mom. Him again and again and again until his body collapse.

Jealousy burns in his chest. Their mom will keep being an awful parent as long as they lived. Chan will always be there for his two younger brothers. Yet, he isn’t enough. Why isn’t he enough?

_“Channi?”_ His mom calls from where she took his place in between Jisung and Changbin. Both are latched on her either of her arms.

_“Turns off the light and come here baby. I’ll sing our song to you.”_

Why can’t he let her go? Why can’t he hate his mother? Why does he so desperately crave for the presence, attention and love of a woman that never had really been there for him?

Chan turns off the lights.

He curls up in between Jisung and his mom, arm flung on her stomach.

He can feel it go up and down as she sings.

_When the sun shines, we'll shine together_

_Told you I'll be here forever_

_aid I'll always be your friend_

_Took an oath, I'ma stick it out 'til the end_

_Now that it's raining more than ever_

_Know that we'll still have each other_

_You can stand under my umbrella_

_You can stand under my umbrella,_

_ella, ella..._

When Chan’s heavy eyelids open again, he can still hear her voice echoing in his soul. His ears pick up on Changbin’s voice singing the same lyrics on the other side of the wall. Chan can almost see him, laying on Jisung’s bed, cradling the younger’s hair away from his face as Jisung’s head lays against his chest. Whispered lyrics, from a fading song, of a forever gone mother.

Her voice mixes with Changbin’s. Her voice is at a quicker pace than his, as if she is hurrying to go away. Their voices merges unto one when the song is about to end, and when it does, silence hollows Chan’s chest.

_**[[RECORDING](https://twitter.com/i/status/1359172296452227074)]** _


	16. “I'm coming home Tell the world I'm coming home Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes I'm coming home”

_"Not to forget funeral attires. They always find themselves great use."_

Those were the words the shop lady had uttered with a smirk and a wink. Minho had shivered back then, but never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that he would be involved in said murder. Seungmin had been right after all, maybe he should have stayed away from 3racha.

Still, as he fixes his eyes on Jisung’s unfocused eyes staring down at the river glittering under the blinding sun, as he feel Changbin’s arm wrapped around his shoulder, as he meets Chan’s warm smile, Minho realizes that if he had the chance too, he would do it all over again.

The tree behind him is strong and steady, allowing his stiff tensed back to rest against it. The grass bellow him is tickling, and the morning breeze is refreshing. Minho closes his eyes, head tilted toward the sky.

Three days has passed since that faithful night. Three long and agonizing days.

This morning, the school had finally decided to host Mrs. Rose’s funeral.

Teachers and staff alike gave a speech in front of the crowd of students in their black uniforms. Thankfully or unfortunately, Minho didn’t really know which was better, the deceased didn’t have any friend or family to mourn her loss.

The event had gone uneventfully, and once the headmistress had finished whipping her dry eyes and sending an emotionless threat to whoever killed Mrs. Rose, she dismissed them.

They had all followed after Chan as he silently led them to the garden. No one spoke, no one did anything. They sat under the tree Minho had seen Chan under the day illūnis had been adopted. The daisies are still as splendid as the first time he had casted his eyes upon them.

**[LOCATION]**

Cr: Paul Moon Photohraphy

The hours fly by without any of them verbalizing a protest against the running time. They stay comfortable in each other’s silence, bathing under the sun.

At around lunch, when the students have all ran to hide in the shadow of the cafeteria, Minho finally asks.

“Was it you?”

All heads turn to his, even Jisung who Minho thought had been asleep on Felix’s laps has opened his eyes to stare at him.

“The daisies on my nightstand.” He directs his attention to Chan. “Was it you?”

There’s a silence before the older shrugs.

“Reminded me of a song.”

Minho wants to ask more, but he doesn’t. He realizes that he doesn’t really care; Chan is not the threatening man he once was apprehensive of.

“Hyunjin.” Chan says. “Can you cast a silencing spell around us?”

The witch nods. He lifts his hands in front of him, murmurs under his breath before he lowers them back down a minute later. “It’s all done.”

“Alright”

They all turn around toward the leader, as if they are planets gravitating around him.

Jisung sits up, head on Felix’s shoulder. He hadn’t spoken a word for the past three days.

“As Minho said, if we want to be able to blindly trust each other, the first step is to share our secrets.” Chan offers an encouraging smile that looks strained. “Is anyone against the idea?”

They all shake their heads, so he continues.

“We will start with our first secret; specie. From oldest to youngest.”

Again, no one protest.

“I will start first. I’m a werewolf. You saw me in my wolf form already.” Chan says with a sheepish smile.

“I’m a vampire.” Minho follows. “Though I think most of you already know.”

“Fae.” Changbin says, keeping it short.

Hyunjin and Jeongin blink at him with wide eyes. “What?” The youngest asks, leaning forward.

Changbin raises an eyebrow. “Did I stutter?”

“I mean-” Hyunjin backs away, “You don’t exactly _look_ like a Fae.”

Changbin scoffs, rolling his eyes. “What does that even mean? This is ridiculous. Scandalous!” he turns his head to Chan, pointing at Hyunjin with a finger. “This is typical stereotypes!”

Chan scoffs a laugh and Seungmin chuckles.

“It’s not! It’s science! You just don’t look very much like a Faery.” Hyunjin turns his head to Felix. “Lix suits a Fae better. Fae are gentle and noble like. You are just loud and clumsy!”

Changbin throws himself at Hyunjin, and with the later loud yell of laughter, they roll on the grass.

“I’M S-SORRY” Hyunjin barks between two fists of giggles, trying to wiggle out of Changbin’s tickles.

Hyunjin finally manages to free himself, and when he does, he runs to hide behind Minho.

Changbin is about to chase after him when he stops short in front of the vampire.

Minho raises an eyebrow, challenging him to take a step forward.

The Fae mimics cutting his throat with his hand, throwing Hyunjin a harmless glare.

“I’m a witch” Hyunjin says with a grin once he has settled down close to Minho.

Jisung has a soft smile on his lips. He surprises everyone when he says with a soft crackled voice; “Hybrid.”

“Vampire” Felix says with a wide smile, seemingly pleased to have heard Jisung’s voice and seen his smile after days of muffled cries and mutism from his side.

“Elf” Seungmin rises his hand.

“You all already know I’m a siren. I am a middle class. My parents own a flower shop.” Jeongin smiles. “My third secret is that I have a phobia of deep waters.”

The light atmosphere in the air moves and bends. It’s tense.

Jeongin attempts a wavering laugh. “A siren scared of deep waters. Ironic isn’t it?”

Minho frowns his eyebrows. “I’m a vampire terrified of blood. We all have our demons Innie.”

The sea being lifts grateful shaky eyes to him. “I don’t know I’m just- terrified. What if I go underwater and suddenly can’t breath? What if I get eaten by a shark or something? I just- I want to be able to go there without being scared of drowning” he exhales a breath. “I technically can’t drown, but when I panic I tend to forget that I can breathe and it’s just- yeah.”

_** UNLOCKED CLUE N•4  ** _

[#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click)

****

“Have you never lived in the ocean?”Seungmin asks kindly to which the younger shakes his head.

“I grew up above ground.” He runs a hand in his hair. “It’s a good secret I guess, no one would have guessed it.”

Seungmin continues after a short pause. “I’m a high class. My third secret was about the l-life that I took.”

He pointedly diverts his eyes from Minho’s. The latter doesn’t blame him. He understands, even if his chest aches at the memory of his loss.

“My third secret is that I have a biological brother named Lee Minho” Felix grins as Minho blinks his eyes in surprise and everyone else beside Jeongin gasps in shock.

“I _knew_ something was up between you two” Chan shouts.

“You remembered my name from when you were 4?” Minho asks Felix.

“How are you two brothers? How did that even happen?” Hyunjin rises his arms above his head, scandalized.

“How can Felix even be Minho’s brother? Minho’s a devil!” Changbin screams, scouting as far away from Minho to protect himself of any blow coming his way.

Seungmin claps once in his hands, capturing the attention to him. “Moving on! Ji, do you wanna tell us your secrets?”

Jisung shakes his head, and so Chan speaks on his stead.

“Ji is a low class. His third secret concerns his magic abilities.” He smiles sadly, reaching to hold one of the younger’s hands. “He’s what we call a witch of the moon. His magic is very unstable and manifest at night. Sometimes, it acts like it has a mind of its own.”

“It’s like I’m possessed. It makes me do things I don’t agree with. It has never got bad to the point of-“ jisung trails off, his voice getting quieter. “Of killing.”

There’s a heavy silence that settles around them. It’s scary. It’s terrifying. Minho shivers.

“Are we supposed to be scared of you?”

They all address him wide eyes. Jisung looks like he’s about to faint.

Minho wishes there’s an easier way to go about this.

“What I mean is, if you can’t control it, those powers of yours, should we be scared of being killed one night if we upset you?”

Jisung fixes his eyes unto Minho’s. He purses his lips, and like a castle of card crumbling to the ground, his face falls apart.

“I won’t let it.” Tears roll down his face, but he whips then furiously. “I will rather die than let it hurt anyone again.”

Minho wants to argue that just because he doesn’t want too, doesn’t mean he could prevent it from happening again. That’s the whole problem of not being in control. He doesn’t have the courage to break him further, so he decides to stay quiet.

“Mrs. Rose had been on our backs for the past three years. She called us names, threatened us, did a bunch of horrible things I wouldn’t speak of.” Chan tugs a daisy from the ground and starts to play with it. “I think Jisung’s magic was trying to protect us that night. All of us.”

“Why would Jisung’s magic care about our safity?” Hyunjin asks, long legs pulled against his chest.

“You see, Jisung’s magic is alive.” Changbin says thoughtfully. “It knows that Jisung cares about all of us.”

“We will never know what would have happened if Mrs. Rose hadn’t died that night. What was she doing lurking in the dark listening to our conversation? What would she have done with the informations that she heard?” Minho shrugs, tucking at the grass. “Maybe Ji’s magic knew. Maybe it really protected us.”

The silence is heavy. Jeongin speaks again first; “What if it decides that it doesn’t want to protect us anymore? What if it judges that we are a danger to Jisung and kills us?”

Jisung’s whole body trembles in fear. Chan wraps an arm around his shoulders as he brings him close. “It won’t happen. Besides, Ji now has a magic blocker.”

Minho stares down at the black necklace around Jisung’s neck.

“It is locked by a spell, so it won’t fall off by accident. Ji will keep it on until we have a chance to work on his magic. A friend of mine brought it to me.” Chan winks at them. “My friend will keep quite. She’s truthworthy.”

“Sana?” Changbin asks to which Chan nods.

“Well, if no one has any more questions, let's continue.” Hyunjin stretches his arms above his head, trying to get ride of the tension with the simple action. "I'm a high class. My third secret is that I'm a bastard and my adoptive mother isn't aware that I’m not her son."

His tone is casual, posture relaxed, and yet Minho can see the pain in his eyes.

Jeongin, Felix and Changbin whistles loudly. Hyunjin chuckles. "I know, I have the most impressive third secret."

"We'll need to hear the whole story of that one of these days." Changbin says light heartedly.

"One of these days." Hyunjin repeats with melancholy dripping from his voice.

Changbin sighs. "Low class. My secret is kind of lame. My father is the king's brother. I'm a bastard though so I never met him, he never cared."

They don’t comment on that out of respect.

Minho speaks when he realizes that it's his turn. "High class. My third secret is similar to Lix's. I put that I have a brother."

"I guess it's my turn then." Chan takes a deep breath in. "I'm a low class. My third secret is that..." he throws a glance to Jisung and Changbin who offer an encouraging nod. "Jisung and Changbin are actually my biological brothers."

Minho's mouth falls open in shock. He blinks repeatedly, looking between the three boys as if the truth will suddenly show itself on their faces.

"You are WHAT?" Hyunjin screams. "You don't even have the same last name!"

Changbin points a finger at the younger. "This boy is full of stereotypes. A high class indeed. What do they teach you in those castle of yours?"

Hyunjin doesn't look offended. His mouth opens repeatedly, but no words come out.

"Bang Chan. Seo Changbin. Han Jisung." Seungmin says, "You guys are step brothers?"

Chan nods. Minho observes the other's expressions. Jeongin and Felix don't look that surprised, meaning that the two brothers already had their suspicions.

"Our mother was a prostitute." Chan begins.

"Was?" Seungmin notes.

"She passed away. She got pregnant by accident. We were born from 3 different men who were her clients." He sounds more tired than bothered. "Mom was a werewolf. I took her genes. Changbin's father was a Fae, he took his. Jisung took both of his parents' specie; that's why he's a hybrid, half a werewolf and half a witch like his father."

Felix frowns his eyebrows. "I haven't studied magic and genetics that much but that's rare. Usually, a child take one of his parent's specie, not both."

Changbin nods, somehow dejectedly. "He has a lot of magic in him. That's why his powers are somehow unstable." He ruffles Jisung's hair. "Our Hanni is very powerful." He says proudly.

"We know that we don't exactly look alike. We also have three different last names. It would be hard to suspect that we are anything other than friends that's why I choose it as my third secret." Chan finishes shrugging.

A comfortable silence follows. The sunset falls over the garden, bathing the field in a blanket of orange light.

Chan suddenly leans forward, a flame burning in his eyes. "Now, the next step is to win this damn tournament. We need to reach the new land no matter what. The eight of us."

"How would we do that? The competition is tough." Jeongin bits his lips, unsure.

Chan smirks, a devilish look on his face. "I will teach you how to observe and analyze people. How to judge a sigh and listen between walls. How to lie, be trusted and betray. I will teach you how to tell the secrets laying in one's eyes. How to detect the slightest change in a body language.”

His dimples glint under the last light of the day.

“Prepare for glory.”

_**PICTURES UNLOCKED** _

And so the weeks went on like the lights of a passing car at night on one’s ceiling.

The headmistress held a private interview for every student and personal in the castle to try to find the murderer. Chan has made sure their alibi matched, and as he had promised, they all went through it without difficulties. Minho had always been a good liar anyway.

Chan’s lessons worked perfectly, and by the end of December, they each had at least 50 points.

_‘High Class are different from us.’_ He had said as the eight of them walked between two classes. _‘They speak differently, they walk differently, they eat differently. You can’t get rid of such habits.’_

That had been the very first thing he taught them. High class and low class are like the two opposite sides of a coin, making them the easiest to spot. While high class put down their forks in a very specific angle, low classes never left food on their plates. Middle class were the harder to spot, but that hadn’t been a problem; 3racha has more than one trick in their pockets. Nobles were also especially good in philosophy and literature.

Finding out the species turned out to be easier than Minho had thought it would. Werewolf were more frustrated at the end of the month when the full moon approaches. They would get especially angry for no specific reason and found an unreasonable liking for meat during that said period of the month. Chan made most of the work when it came to werewolf, as he turned unto his wolf form and stalked the ones he met in the forest.

Vampires were also pretty easy. They receive blood once every two weeks, meaning that anything red triggers them bi-weekly and they get pretty thirsty then. Seungmin had once cut his finger with a paper by accident and at least 10 students had abruptly not so subtly snapped their heads toward him. Changbin had also mentioned that high class vampires were especially affected by the lack of blood as they are used to feed more frequently than the other lower vampires. That made two birds with one stone.

The other species were harder to spot. Elves and Faery practically sparkled when they were close to nature, but it wasn’t easy to spot. Jeongin for being a siren and having met a lot of them in one of his trips in the underground pool before it got locked, knew a handful of them.

Third secrets were harder to find, and so to Chan’s instructions, they focused on they first two.

At the end of every month, they would gather in a secluded area to make a summary of their findings. It was closing on May when Chan’s face betrayed worry for the first time since the murder months ago.

_“The headmistress came to me.”_ He had said, back laying on the grass and eyes fixed on the stars.

Hyunjin and Felix had lifted themselves up, weight on one of their elbows as they spoke at the same time. _“WHAT?”_

_“What did that old rat say?”_ Seungmin mumbled between a yawn.

Chan had stayed silent for a long minute, butthey didn’t urge him to speak. They all knew he would eventually.

_“You know Chan,”_ He finally said with a voice perfectly imitating hers. “ _The act of protecting and scarifying oneself for others is heroic. Unhealthy, but heroic still. I wonder to what length you will go for those stray kids of yours. It’s leaders like you that I want in my ranks.”_

The crickets sang in the silence that had followed.

Minho sat up. The seven men that faced him were all sprawled on the grass in odd angles, Hyunjin latching on Jeongin like an octopus. The night was fresh, and the stars were bright.

_“Do you think she knows?”_

Chan blinked at the moon.

His arm was wrapped around Jisung’s shoulders, the younger’s head resting against his chest. He looked fast asleep. His necklace was securely hanging from around his neck, and for once in a long time, he looked peaceful.

_“She knows.”_

He had ran his hand absent mindedly in his younger brother’s hair. _“She knows and yet, it felt like she praised me.”_

No one had said anything else after that.

The last month went by much slower than the past nine ones, as if knowing that everyone was anticipating the final results.

“Wait.” Minho says the last day of June. His eyebrows are frowned while Seungmin arranges his hair in front of the mirror. “Explain that again.”

“All the students are paired in groups of 8 or 10. We are directed to two carriages. There, we will find a sealed letter.” Jisung says from where he is laying on Minho’s bed.

“And in it, we will know if we were selected to go to Orenda or back home.” Minho finishes to which his roommate nods at. They had received the groups last week, and thankfully, the eight of them had been put together. Jeongin had hopes that it is because they are the lucky winners, but none of the older men allowed such hopeful words to be spoken out loud.

“Seungmin” Jisung speaks up, sitting up. “Can you leave us for a second?”

Seungmin doesn’t argue nor does he asks questions. He leaves quickly.

“What’s up?” Minho asks, hands in his pockets and properly turning to face the younger.

“I wanted to thank you.”

With frowned eyebrows, he asks; “For what?”

Jisung smiles. “You don’t remember, but four years ago, you saved my life.”

Minho doesn’t speak, so the younger keeps talking.

“My father had came back to get me. Said it was an amazing chance for me and that I should be grateful.” He scoffs. “Long story short, I did as he said but living with him turned out to be horrible. I decided to pack my stuff and go back to Chan Hyung and Changbin Hyung. I never should have left them in the first place no matter how much they tried to make me go with him. We were extremely poor and they wanted to believe that life was finally smiling down at us.”

He takes a deep breath in. “I am a monster. I know that. I know it better than anyone else, so why do I still crave for affection and freedom? Why do I want to live so desperately?”

** UNLOCKED CLUE N•5 **

[#Orenda_Clues_Unlocked](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orenda_Clues_Unlocked?src=hashtag_click)

The eyes he lifts to Minho are pleading for an answer.

The older shakes his head. “You are not a monster.” He shrugs. “Or maybe we all are in a way, after all we are humans.” He offers a smile he can only hope is sincere. “You deserves to be happy Jisung. Like the bunch of us.“

Jisung stares at him for a long second, seemingly pondering on his words. Finally, he lowers his gaze and sighs. “Anyway, as I was running away from him, I almost got hit my a carriage.”

He lifts his eyes to Minho’s. “Your carriage.”

The vampire’s face opens up at the memory that suddenly plays behind his eyes; a teen in a storm with terrorized orbs begging for life to be generous on him.

“You got out of your car, removed the jewelry you wore and gave them to me.” Jisung stands up. It looks like a weight has been lifted out of his shoulders. “It was probably nothing to you, but that money allowed me to go back home.”

Minho opens his mouth, but he doesn’t know what to say. His heart is shattered, yet so warm.

Jisung smiles widely. The very first genuine and serious smile Minho has seen from him. “You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted to thank you.”

With that, he wiggles his way out of the room.

Minho stares at the door he went out of. Suddenly, a lot of things make sense. The reason Jisung had known his name on their first encounter in the train. The daisies Chan had left on his nightstand; probably to warn him not to reveal Jisung’s financial statue. Not that Minho had remembered.

“What is takin you so long?” Felix asks as he enters the room. “We don’t have anything to pack anyway.”

Minho flicks him on the forehead when he walks out, just for good measures.

“Everyone’s here?” Chan asks where they meet him in the hall. He stands on the tip of his toes, counting their heads. They are the last group to leave. “Where’s Hyunjin and Jisung?”

“I saw them in Hyunjin’s room counting the number of chocolate bars they stole throughout the year.” Changbin points a finger behind him.

“325! Counted them ourselves!” Hyunjin shouts, a puffy backpack on his back.

Jeongin rolls his eyes, starting to walk in the direction of the exit. “You think we’re going to survive with chocolate?”

“You think we’re going to survive _without_ chocolate?” Changbin rises a questioning eyebrow, running to catch up to him.

They bicker all the way to where the carriages are waiting for them, Chan and Minho walking last. They fill their nervousness with their laughter and fights, although they all know that the inevitable end in coming for them.

The letter is waiting for them on the velvet seat of the car.

_Stray Kids_ , is written in red ink.

“Before I open it.” Chan says, looking up to stare at the seven boys standing around him. “I just want to remind you guys, that no matter what is in this letter, we will stick together. No one is going to be left behind on his own.”

_What a weird bunch we make,_ Minho thinks with a relieved smile, _eight troubled kids terrorized of being alone apart from each other._

Chan opens the letter.

Inside, is a parchment and a picture.

**[UNLOCKED LOCATION]**

Carriage

[Credit ](https://gailcarriger.com/2012/10/22/victorian-travel-times-updated/)

GRAB LETTER 

BREAK THE SEAL 

VIEW CONTENT

READ PARCHMENT : 

[ ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EucV6TXXEAIqCHP?format=jpg&name=900x900)

VIEW PICTURE : 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very open and thrilling ending that leaves a lot of question... Though it is only fair to this story. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
